Elapsed: The Child in Flames
by kehkr
Summary: As the 4th World Championship gets underway, Kai is beginning to deeply regret his decision to rejoin his old team. Tyson's ego is out of control, Ray & Mariah's relationship has gone down the drain, Kenny is stuck in a love triangle and somehow, Max gets all the girls. On top of everything, Kai's life is about to go up in flames, if only he could figure out why...
1. Here we go again

For the second time that morning, Kai found himself walking begrudgingly down the road to Tyson's house.

The first time, he had approached the house with tentative steps, considering whether or not to open the gate. Instead, he had waited to see if his ears could pick out the dulcet tones of Tyson who was no doubt bragging about his three world champion wins, or perhaps Hilary was shouting because no one wanted to stick to her rigorous training schedule, or there was always Daichi, who would simply scream over everyone as if he didn't know what talking was.

Kai had quickly established that he could hear none of these things; therefore he must have been the first of the group to arrive, and he really wasn't in the mood to spend alone time with Tyson's Grandpa. It was obvious to him that short walk around the neighborhood would be prudent, and he would, hopefully, return to a full house.

Truth be told, this time on his approach to the house he could hear distant waffling, something about Tyson had stolen Daichi's egg on toast, and what was that? Fried tomatoes? Riveting, Kai thought as he headed through the gate into the traditional Japanese garden. He reached to pull back the sliding door whilst a small voice in the back of his head was pleading at him to run in the opposite direction.

The door slid back to reveal Ray, Kenny and Hilary who were all sat at one end of the table, politely tucking into their breakfast. All three of them raised their heads and offered cheerful greetings. Max was over by the toaster pouring liberal amounts of syrup onto a large stack of waffles, he grinned widely and waved. Kai grunted in return.

Kais eyes then wandered to the other end of the long kitchen table to what appeared to be the main event. Daichi was sat on top of the table holding an almost empty upside down plate, dripping with what looked like baked beans as he aimed it at Tysons face. "AUGHF!" Tyson muffled loudly through a slice of toast, and dived as the plate came hurtling towards him. Kai paused for a second, and then slid the door closed, hiding the scene of carnage. He headed back towards the garden gate; the championship was not worth this.

"KAI!" Tyson had somehow managed to catch the plate and race over to door just in time to call at his teammate before he escaped. "Hey buddy where you heading off to? You were meant to be here twenty minutes ago!" Kai turned and slouched back over to the house with a defeated look on his face. Little did Tyson know that Kai had in fact already been there twenty minutes ago, and Tyson hadn't even been awake!

He flung himself down into a chair near the corner of the room, picked up a slice of toast and began nibbling gingerly. Tyson knew better than to argue with that face, but decided to anyway. "Sorry Mr Sourpuss, get out of the wrong side of the bed this morning?"

Kai scowled, "I always get out of the wrong side of the bed." He stated dully, setting the half eaten piece of toast down on an empty plate.

"Oh man what a grump!" Tyson moaned, "Are you not excited for the tournament? I'M SO EXCITED I CAN'T CONTAIN MYSELF!" Tyson exclaimed loudly, turning away from Kai and stuffing more food into his mouth. "WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP, BABY!" and with that, he began to dance around excitedly, punching the air as if he had already won. Max, and Daichi quickly joined him, all chanting "World Championship, Baby!" repeatedly, reminding Kai that he needed to buy a new pair of headphones, and quick.

Ray on the other hand chuckled as he glanced between Kais furrowed brow to Tysons beaming smile and raised his glass of orange juice. "Here's to the fourth World Championship Tournament!"

"May victory prevail, and may we make many new friends along the way, and of course collect lots of data!" Kenny added, clinking his glass with Ray and Hilary's.

"Yea way cool, Chief! I can't wait to meet all the new bladers, I bet there'll be some tough competition, but no one'll ever beat me, I am the CHAMPION!" Tyson exclaimed happily. Kai rolled his eyes, extremely thankful that he had not yet poured himself a drink; if he had he might have been inclined to throw it in his teammates face.

"Its so nice to all be back together again!" Hilary smiled serenely, cupping her cheeks with her elbows resting on the table, watching Tyson and the others.

This year, with the return of the BBA, Tyson, Max, Ray and Kai had decided to put aside their rivalry and team up in original Bladebreakers style, with the addition of Daichi of course, although that was mainly because he simply wouldn't leave. The tournament was going to be help primarily in the UK, somewhere that had never held a beyblade tournament before but because of the increasing popularity of beyblading, the BBA wanted to expand and the UK seemed like a good place to start. It was a long flight from Japan to England and of course, first they had to get to the airport.

"The bus will be arriving in five minutes, I'm just going to check I've packed everything!" and with that, Hilary scurried off. No sooner had she returned than the official BBA bus pulled up noisily outside and began beeping its horn. Kai got up hastily, reaching inside his trouser pocket and quickly grasping Dranzer, giving her a tight squeeze as he strode past the other members of the team. He was going to claim the backseat of the bus as his own domain. There was no way he was letting them sit there this time.

Kai reclined lazily along the back three seats of the bus. He sat there with his eyelids shut and a sly smirk on his face; it was these small triumphs that gave him at least some satisfaction in life. He lifted his lids slightly as he heard the rest of the team slowly but animatedly make their way down the winding garden path. Max was knocking Tyson playfully on the head with his fist, "Bladebreakers…" he sighed, "more like The Moron Brigade."

It wasn't as if he hated his teammates, it was just Kai was a rather solitary being and enjoyed his alone time. As much as he respected his friends (well kinda, he hated calling them friends) they could sometimes (all the time) be a tad annoying. He watched as Tyson gave his Grandpa a goodbye hug and felt a pang of annoyance that he couldn't quite put his finger on. He sighed and closed his eyes again, mind wandering to his own grandfather, struggling to remember the last time he had exchanged as much as a small smile with the imposing man.

The journey was plagued by irritating noises. Kenny was listening loudly to Ming Ming's new album, much to the dismay of Hilary and the rest of the team.

"WOULD YOU TURN THAT OFF!" she shouted, smacking the lid of Kenny's laptop down in disgust. The Chief emitted a high-pitched outraged cry and looked around at everyone's faces, which were trying (and failing) to hide their looks of relief.

Kenny turned back to his laptop looking deflated, "fine, I guess I should be looking up our opponents for the upcoming tournament." He said as he opened the lid.

"Well how kind of you to open me up again after I was so rudely closed!" It was Dizzi, Kenny's bit beast who somehow managed to get trapped inside his laptop.

"Sorry Dizzi, it was just Hilary getting all aerated because she's jealous of Ming Ming.." he said giggling slightly.

"I am not jealous! There's nothing to be jealous of, I simply don't like her!" and with that, Hilary stood up. She had learnt how to deal with the 'jealous of Ming Ming' remarks a good few months ago, and walked towards the back of the bus. _Oh no_ thought Kai. She was going to sit exactly where no one would bother her, next to Kai.

Kai quite liked Hilary, and admired her for putting up with Tyson and Daichi. He did however often wonder what her point to the team was, apart from to boss Tyson around, although he guessed that saved him from having to do it. None of this however excused Hilary from the displeasure she caused him whenever she invaded his three-meter personal bubble.

As always, Tyson spoke without thinking, "sitting next to your boyfriend Hilary?" and then chaos ensued.

Hilary's face went bright red. Her words started out slow and quiet, quickly turning into a onslaught of verbal abuse about how she had never thought of Kai in that way, and Tyson was disgusting to speak of it. Kai wished she wouldn't, her over compensating on the subject always made it seem as if she were trying to cover something up, when in reality, Kai was quite sure Hilary wasn't so into him as she was into the person she so often found herself yelling at.

Ray, Max and Daichi were sat behind Tyson pulling awkward faces as if waiting for an ominous rock to fall on their heads. They obviously had also picked up on Tyson and Hilary's turbulent relationship that wasn't even a relationship and were feeling very uncomfortable about the situation.

Kai however smirked, he was quite sure that with one short sentence he could both annoy Tyson, and also maybe give him a slight push in the right direction. He reclined even more in his seat and opened one eye and stared directly at his blue haired friend, "why, you jealous Tyson?" The smirk fell off Tyson's face immediately and the smaller blader rounded on him, running angrily up the center of the bus.

"YOU!" Tysons fist made its way speedily towards Kais face, "I AM NOT JEALOUS!" he shouted as Hilary jumped over onto the next seat to avoid the chaos. Kai stood up and blocked the oncoming attack, easily overpowering Tyson. It was painfully obvious that Tyson was seething with jealously, however Kai wasn't in the mood for games and so he slouched off to the front of the bus, ignoring the many obscene things that were being shouted in his direction.

The rest of the journey was relatively devoid of drama, although Hilary and Tyson were both sulking and facing in opposite directions, determined to fixate on something as far away from the other as possible.

Mr Dickinson met them at the airport and whilst on the airplane, he caught Tyson and Daichi trying to sneak into first class so they could sample the complimentary buffet. "Aw man why aren't we in first class! I'm a world champ y'know!" he informed the pretty flight attendant by speaking over Mr Dickinson who was trying his best to apologize for their behavior.

Kai thought of how he would be glad when they landed in the UK. He had asked Mr Dickinson to get him his own hotel room, vowing to pay him back as soon as he turned eighteen and could get his hands on his trust fund. Kai couldn't face another championship staying in the same hotel room with the rest of his teammates for twenty-four hours a day. He needed his space.

Even a year on from his championship match with Tyson, he still felt a divide between them. It was like they were so close and yet so far, maybe it was the rivalry or maybe it was the fact that Kai had betrayed them all so many times for his own personal gain and greed that there really was an invisible wall trying its best to keep him away from them. Not that Kai even wanted to be on their team anyway, he reminded himself firmly.

Maybe he was more like his grandfather than he thought he was. What had his actions over the past few years achieved? Not much, sure he had improved his skills, but so had everyone else. All he had really achieved was losing the only battle that was important to him, and that was his battle with Tyson. Now he was just the guy who betrayed his teammates thinking he could beat them and had it thrown back in his face. Thinking about it, it was no wonder they were acting more distant than normal, what if they thought he was some asshole loser who just wants to tag along for a bit of glory. No way, his teammates wouldn't think that, Kai told himself as he viciously picked at a scab on his knuckle.

Why was he getting insecure about such things anyway? Since when did he care if Tyson and the rest of the team had any interest in him, because he sure as hell had no interest in them.

That was a lie.

Kai found his teammates highly interesting; Daichi was young and immature yet wielded his power with such strength and control, a trait, which Kai admired greatly. Max's defensive style was always impressive, having never focused solely on defense; Kai could always learn a thing or two and was often surprised by Max in the dish. Ray on the other hand was extremely powerful, and very quick; originally upon first meeting Ray, Kai had thought he would be his biggest rival. Ray also showed great compassion towards all elements of his life and was an extremely level headed, nice guy, something that Kai could only dream of becoming.

Then there was Tyson, Kai could never think of words to describe him, sometimes he found himself wishing he could be like Tyson, or more like wishing he could be Tyson. Suddenly the image in his brain morphed into him running around Tyson's kitchen screaming, "WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP, BABY!" along with the rest of the group, piece of toast hanging skewwhiff from his mouth, it made him cringe so hard he thought his eyebrows might fall off.

Kai barely noticed as they passed through customs and into the awaiting BBA taxi which sped them along the motorway towards their London hotel. They had briefly been to London when their ship, which was meant to be taking them to the Russian leg of the world championships three years ago abandoned them. Kai was glad they got to return, they hadn't had much time to explore the city of London last time and Kai couldn't wait to go and find a quiet spot to brood over his somewhat miserable life.

"We're here! Aw man, I can't wait to get in bed and watch a movie! Can we order pizza Mr. Dickinson?" Tyson asked.

"Yea PIZZA!" Exclaimed Daichi excitedly.

"Why yes, that sounds quite alright boys! But make sure you get an early night, the first rounds start tomorrow and you don't want to be tired!" Mr Dickinson replied, making a beeline for the check in desk. "Ah yes, hello! My name is Mr. Dickinson, I believe I booked five rooms for the BBA?" passing the receptionist a folder containing their booking references.

"Just one moment sir let me check that for you," the receptionist replied with a kind smile, "yes I have them right here, your rooms are ready! If you'd like your luggage brought up feel free to leave it at the concierge with your name and room number! Breakfast is from 7-9am and of course feel free to call down at any time for assistance or room service!"

"Thank you very much! I think I shall leave my suitcase here, I'm getting a bit old for carrying it around!" He mithered as the receptionist passed him four key cards.

"Would you like to take Mr Hiwatari's key also or should I pass that onto the butler?"

Kai felt a jolting stab in his stomach, "no butler!" he growled.

"No… no butler? Of course! I'm sorry-" the receptionist flushed bright red as she picked up the phone and dialed furiously.

"Butler…?" Tyson mumbled looking decidedly clueless.

Mr. Dickinson cut across him, "Right boys, I shall stay in room 238, Tyson, Daichi, Max and Ray, you'll be in room 239, Kenny if you would please take room 240 and Hillary if you'd take room 241." He then turned to Kai and passed him the last keycard, "Kai, you will be in room 401."

"Uuuuuuugh," a groan emitted from Tyson, "why is Kai on a completely different floor to the rest of us?" He demanded with a dumb look on his face, "and what's this about a butler?"

"Kai has simply chosen to have his own room," replied Mr. Dickinson plainly.

"WHAT, why don't you want to be near us Kai, are we not good enough for you?" Tyson exclaimed loudly on their way over to the lift.

"Hey Tyson, maybe Kai just wants some space, I mean, Kai likes his own company if you already hadn't noticed!" said Max with Ray nodding in agreement.

"I don't care, we're a team! I'm the best company, why don't you wanna hang out with us, it'll be like old times! I thought we'd actually be able to spend time together as a team now that we're all back together again!"

Kai sighed and pressed the button for the 20th and 40th floor, "its not like I asked for my room to be so far away from yours Tyson, but I'm kind of glad, seeing as your separation anxiety seems to have gone into overload, I'd rather not be around you!" he said in an irritated tone, wishing for the doors to open up immediately on the second so that the rest of the team would get out and leave him.

"SEPERATION ANXIETY, I DON'T HAVE SEPERATION ANXIETY, what's wrong with me wanting to get the team together for pizza and a movieeeeeeeee!"

They were at the second floor, Tyson, Ray, Max, Daichi, Kenny and Hilary exited the lift. Kai smirked, finally, peace at last. But wait, no, with great force came a flying Tyson, barely missing the closing lift door as he flung himself back into the lift desperately pressing the 40th floor button.

"What the hell, get out!" shouted Kai, attempting to push Tyson back out of the door whilst also attempting to reach for the button to open the doors again. Tyson grabbed his arm and pulled it away from the console. Kai could see Daichi, Max and Ray chuckling outside the glass door and glared at them, infuriated that they were doing nothing to help but laugh at his predicament.

"I'm coming with you!" said Tyson determinedly, bouncing around the lift as it climbed the building.

Kai threw himself back against the wall of the lift and crossed his arms, "get a grip! I'll come down for your stupid movie and pizza night alright?" he glanced over at the blue haired boy who was looking mildly excited but also slightly reproachful.

"I bet you wont! I'm still going to come see your room, then I can drag you back!"

"Great."

Finally they reached the 40th floor. The two boys walked up to the door emblazoned with the number 401, Kai noticed that there were in fact only two rooms on this floor, the other being number 400. He sighed; the butler should have been the first indication that something wasn't quite right. He quickly moved the key card over the handle and opened the door to reveal one of the most stunning penthouse suites he had ever seen. This had to be his Grandfathers fault, or maybe it was just the fact he was called Hiwatari, either way, Kai was quite sure that this would eat dramatically into his first trust fund installment.

Kai walked in and placing his key on the highly polished marble sideboard and turned to face Tyson, whose face looked frozen in a huge gawp of disbelief. Kai hated being rich, he hated having to explain situations like this to people. Of course, Tyson already knew of Voltaire's wealth, however Kai felt extremely awkward that the rest of his team would be staying in mere average hotel rooms whilst Kai had an entire pent house suite to himself. He hadn't asked for this, nor did he need it, in fact for one small second he considered inviting the entire team to move all their bags up to the 40th floor and join him in his shiny new suite, he was sure there would be multiple bedrooms and even their own kitchen. It would have been a nice gesture; he chuckled and quickly changed his mind.

"Ok, you've seen my room now, bye Tyson," he said, guiding the shocked blader, who had been rendered speechless, swiftly out of the marble hallway and into the corridor, quickly locking the door behind him.

It must have taken Tyson a good few seconds to realize what had happened. A muffled "HEY!" could be heard as he banged his fist on the door. Kai, who was already halfway down the magnificently polished corridor, glanced backwards at the noise with a _sigh why do these things happen to me_ look on his face, and then slouched off in search of the master bedroom figuring that Tyson would eventually become bored and return to the rest of the team.

The master bedroom was huge; the bed itself could have fit the entire Bladebreakers in with ample room to spare. Kai lowered himself onto the edge of the bed and gazed around the room. Max was right, Kai liked his space, but this was a little too much. He stared at the phone on the bedside table for five minutes long minutes, maybe he should call his Grandfather to find out whether this was his doing or not. No, it could wait. He wouldn't answer anyway.

He brushed away the irritating thought and went to investigate the adjoining bathroom, which was quite exceptional. The bath was not just a bath, but also a huge marble hot tub with many different taps, no doubt containing different types of fancy ass water, which Kai had absolutely no use for. It also had as-comfy-as-marble-could-possibly-look seats, because clearly everyone needs a chair to sit on whilst in the bath. Even the shower had its own seating area, who could possibly be that lazy that they wanted to actually sit down in the shower? He pressed the start button waiting for the water to warm up, it had been a long journey and Kai thought he should freshen up before heading back down to the 20th floor.

Locking the bathroom door, not that anyone would wander in on him, Kai began to remove his clothes; he folded them neatly, placing the weighted scarf gently on top of them on the side of the empty hot tub. Stepping into the shower, Kai noticed there were already shiny gold dispensers attached to the wall, each labeled "Shampoo", "Body Wash" and so on. He let the hot water fall over his head and shoulders, cascading down his back. It had been a tiring journey, not that he had any inclination of going to sleep, he just stood there and let the water wash over him, eventually reaching for the Shampoo and rubbing it into his scalp, massaging his head slightly to ease the small headache which was approaching his mind with great enthusiasm. _It's being around those idiots_ he thought, blaming the rest of the team for the tension in his brow, despite it being quite a common occurrence with or without his teammates. After washing out the shampoo, Kai reached for the body wash, it smelt like vanilla, a smell Kai associated with girls. He rarely used fragranced soap, wondering if he anyone might mock him for smelling like a cupcake. Probably not, they'd be too scared of him punching them in the face, Kai thought with a sly chuckle.

Once Kai had finished his soapy muscular body rub down, he exited the shower, grabbing ahold of one of the towels on the heated radiator. A brief smile flashed across his face, he guessed he did enjoy the small comforts, wrapping himself up in one towel and the other around his head, opening the bathroom door to see if anyone was there- there wasn't- obviously, so he flung himself down onto the massive bed and lay there for a good 15 minutes.

Normally he would get dressed immediately, afraid his grandfather might walk in and scald him for not being appropriately dressed for any scenario, however here he could do as he pleased, and that meant taking a good few minutes to stare at the ceiling and contemplate life. He had heard there would be many new teams emerging for this year's world championship, and Kai knew not to underestimate any of them.

In the past Kai had been known to underestimate people, a prime example being Tyson. He had also underestimated Brooklyn, and despite the fact he managed to get his revenge, it had been pretty close. How many other incredibly all-powerful naturally talented bladers were out there in the world? Kai would have to watch his back and not let his over confidence get the better of him. Sometimes he could be such a bigheaded idiot, he had to admit he was just as bad as Tyson, only Kai displayed his ego in the form of an arrogant grumpy teenager who enjoys betraying his friends to prove that he's better than them, and lets be honest, that didn't go down too well. He sighed again, picking some more skin on his knuckles.

His stomach began to growl, something Kai only let it do whilst he was alone, he began pulling on his clothes and drying his hair, which stuck up at its normal odd angles and Kai did nothing in attempt to tame it. He wondered what the others were doing, probably rampaging around their hotel rooms, or even worse, Tyson was telling the rest of the team about his fancy ass hotel room and how Kai was too much of a snob to even let him in. This was not the case, Kai simply didn't want to be in Tyson's presence, he was annoying, and it had absolutely nothing to do with being a snob.

Finally, Kai applied his signature shark fins to his face and then made his way to the door, picking up his keys from where he left them on the marble sideboard as he went and stepped into the hallway, closing the door with a quiet click. Just as Kai was about to turn around, he suddenly became aware that he was not alone. The door to the room behind him had opened, Kai froze, he hated awkward lift journeys.

Whoever it was brushed past him. Slowly, he put the key card into his pocket and turned around. In front of him was a girl, much smaller in stature than him. Her long hair swayed as she walked towards the lift. Kai considered going back inside his room to wait for her to leave, but no, that would be weird, after all she had already seen him. Instead, he surveyed the girl more closely, she was wearing a black pleated skirt which held in place with a black belt, attached to it was a small belt pack containing what looked like a beyblade launcher. Kai narrowed his eyes, _yes, definitely a launcher,_ he thought to himself.

Interest sparked, Kai set off down the hallway after her. As she pressed the lift button she caught sight of him. They stared at each other awkwardly for a second, "were you just checking out my ass?" she asked with a scowl on her face.

Kai wasn't quite sure how to answer, of all the things she could have said, that was not what he had been expecting. Had he been checking out her ass? Not necessarily. Had he been checking out her beyblade launcher, which in all honesty, was relatively nearby? Yes.

"Yeah- I mean, no- I," he mumbled, "you're a blader, right?" he asked, wishing the floor would open up and swallow him whole.

She eyed him warily and then turned away as the doors of the lift opened, "yeah." Kai hesitated and then swiftly followed her into the lift, intrigued. She pressed the ground floor button and Kai leaned awkwardly across to press the button for the 20th floor. He grasped his Dranzer blade; it was warm and reassuring to the touch, slightly warmer than normal in fact. He glanced sideways; the girl peered back at him through lilac hair. He looked away quickly. Was she entering the tournament? And more importantly, was she any good? Dranzer certainly seemed psyched and that was usually a tell tale sign of being in the presence of a decent blader.

"You here for the championship?" he asked in an off-hand manner.

A small grin appeared across her face, "perhaps, I assume you are too."

The cogs in Kai's head were whirling around, what would he rather do, eat pizza and watch crappy horror movies with Tyson and the rest of his idiotic team or finally sink his teeth into a new opponent, "yeah," he replied, turning to face her whilst reaching inside his pocket to pull out Dranzer. "Wanna blade?" Tyson was going to be so disappointed. It had been so long since he had bladed against anyone that wasn't on the Bladebreakers.

There was a definitive silence as the doors slid shut and the lift kicked into gear; Kai could see the girl mulling things over in her head. After a few moments she said simply, "sorry but, not really."

Kai didn't quite know how to respond; after all, that was normally his line. "Why not?" he retaliated, slightly offended.

The girl shrugged, "I'm just not interested," she must have picked up on his irritation, "don't take it personally, aren't you meant to be getting out here anyway?" she asked, nodding towards the glass doors which had just sprung apart, they had reached the 20th floor without Kai even noticing.

"Hn.." He strode out of the lift; shoving Dranzer back into his pocket, uttering the words, "suit yourself," as he grumpily went in search of room 239.

Unfortunately for Kai, Tyson wouldn't be disappointed after all.

 _I really hope you enjoyed the first chapter! Please do leave a review 3_


	2. Reunited, unfortunately

The next day Kai was awoken abruptly by a shiny golden alarm clock. He stared at it angrily, half because he was feeling particularly groggy and half because of the hassle the clock had caused him the previous night, along with the likes of Tyson. Thanks to his tiresome teammate, Kai hadn't returned to his room until two in the morning. The terrible threesome (Tyson, Max and Daichi) had insisted on watching horror films into the early hours, and had begged Kai to stay for _team bonding,_ when really Kai knew they just wanted him there so they didn't get too scared. Every time he tried to leave, Tyson would start chattering pointedly about penthouse suites and who could possibly afford such things. _Pathetic idiots_ , he thought as he rolled over and punched the pillow into a comfier position. He was the person they should have been worried about, not the creepy chainsaw wielding guy on screen.

Upon his return to his _ridiculously priced penthouse suite,_ Kai had hastily tried to set the alarm, but became completely baffled by all the unusual nobs and buttons that covered the clock. He had almost thrown the clock across the room in anger until he gave up and set it back down on the table with a loud thump and climbed straight into bed, if he woke up late, he would blame Tyson, and that was that. Kai was actually quite shocked that the clock had worked; the only problem now was that he just had to figure out how to turn it off.

It took him a mere fifteen minutes to get ready. Just as he opened the door to the hallway, he noticed a man opposite him wearing a butler's suit, pushing a shining silver teacart and reaching out to knock the door opposite. Kai mentally slapped himself in the face, why had he not ordered room service? It seemed so much easier than having to endure an entire breakfast meal with the rest of his team. He could imagine their puzzled faces, wondering where their captain was as he lay in bed, surrounded by plates of eggs benedict and blueberry pancakes whilst drinking fancy orange juice and coffee.

"Hn," he muttered as he watched the butler slide out of view, but not before a small flicker of lilac hair appeared at the door, sending a pang of annoyance through his chest.

"You're late!" droned a familiar voice as he pushed the door of the breakfast room open. Immediately, Tyson had grabbed Kai's upper arm and was dragging him back out the way he came, followed by the rest of the team.

"You're awake." Kai observed in a flat mocking tone as he flinched away from Tysons grasp.

Hilary rushed up to the two of them and pulled Tyson's hand away, "you're not late, they've just pushed the registration forward by a few hours," she explained as they made their way towards the main exit. "I got you some coffee," she smiled happily and handed it to him, "black, no sugar, right?"

Kai took the cardboard cup gingerly, "uhh… right."

"You're welcome!" Hilary said cheerfully. "Daichi, where are your shoes and socks?"

Daichi, who was pattering excitedly down the steps towards the new BBA tour bus, spun around and looked down at his feet utterly surprised, "uhhh… I guess I didn't put em on today, haha!" he chuckled.

Hilary let out a heavy sigh, "w-wait- Daichi! Oh wow, please tell me he has his Beyblade!" she spluttered at Kenny.

"Errr…." The chief swung his backpack around and began to furiously search it's contents.

"OBVIOUSLY!" Daichi called happily from the bus steps, holding his blade out for all to see.

Everyone sighed.

"I guess that's what's important…" she mused, following the younger boy up the steps.

Mr. Dickinson was sat waiting on one of the red leather seats, he greeted them with his usual jolly smile, however he seemed to be slightly on edge; Kai noticed the old man had put his tie on backwards so that the label was sticking out, it read, _"COOL TIES!"_ Kai smirked quietly but quickly switched to a more suitable, classic composed Kai expression as Mr. Dickinson caught his eye.

"Well hello boys- and ladies- of course! I hope you all had an excellent first night of sleep!" Kai ground his teeth together and glanced towards Tyson, Max and Daichi. "Today is registration day!" the old man announced hurriedly, "once you've signed up to the tournament, you'll have the entire afternoon off to explore London! I hope you make the most of it!" he chuckled happily; quickly nodding at everyone to make sure they had all heard. "Errr, now boys, if you'd all kindly excuse me, I have to return a very important phone call!" he turned on his heel and marched away, getting slightly stuck between the bus doors on the way out.

"Wow I wonder why Mr. D is in such a rush…" Max wondered, looking towards Kenny and Hilary for an answer as if they were the all-knowing twosome of the group.

"He's probably just really bu-" Hilary began.

"-WHO CARES! WE GET THE REST OF THE DAY OFF, OH YES FISH AND CHIPS I AM SO READY!" Tyson punched the air excitedly as Max and Daichi grinned.

"What like real English fish and chips? Like the fish and chips we saw on that English cooking program? OH MAN!" asked Daichi excitedly, drooling at the thought.

"Yeah! They go so well with mustard!" the entire bus groaned and Max looked slightly crestfallen, "but mustard is the best…" he whined quietly.

"Errrr…" Ray interrupted, "Actually I-" he moved forward in his seat to rest his arms on the back on the chair in front of him, "-I told White Tiger X that I'd meet them after the sign ups. I hope that's ok?" his voice sounded uncertain.

Tyson sniffed, obviously annoyed, "well whatever, we all know you're ditching us for Mariah." The bus fell silent, even Max stopped reeling off his list of the benefits of mustard.

Everyone knew that Ray and Mariah were meant to be together, and despite being so close so many times, they'd never quite made it to the, _"Official Boyfriend and Girlfriend stage,"_ as Hilary often called it. Ray was still in total denial about his feelings for Mariah and Mariah (the last time the Bladebreakers had seen her) seemed to have given up.

"Wha- no way!" Ray said defensively.

Max appeared to have completely forgotten about mustard, "dude what is happening with you two? I swear after BEGA you two were inseparable and then all of a sudden when she visited over spring break it was like we'd gone back to the Asian tournament all over again!"

"Uuh…" Ray groaned.

Tyson opened his mouth to retort but was pushed out of the way, "you should go see her, it would be good for you two to sort things out!" Max butted in happily, placing his hand over Tyson's face in the process.

Tyson bit Max's hand, "don't encourage him! WHAT HAPPENED TO BRO'S BEFORE HOE'S RAY?"

Ray opened his mouth but no sound came out, he looked totally bewildered, "I- I- no- TYSON, Max, it's not like that… I swear."

Daichi was giggling in the background. Kai lay sprawled on the back seat of the bus. He had been trying his very best to ignore them, but this was way too much of a good opportunity for a snide comment. He sat up quickly, "don't worry Ray, Tyson's just jealous that he doesn't have the balls to ask a girl out! Or a girl to even ask out in the first place, now I think about it…"

They both turned around to face their captain, "WHAT'S THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN? I HAVE BALLS!" shouted Tyson.

"Oh wait, there is a girl…. But unfortunately, you're too stupid to realize that." Kai continued mockingly. Tyson was growling and throwing his arms around from the other side of the bus as Max and Kenny held him back with their hands over his mouth.

Ray sighed and looked down at his feet, "as I said Kai, it's really not like that." He shook his head and stared blankly ahead, "AAAAAGH I'm a such coward!" he muttered, flopping down sideways across the two seats.

Tyson stopped struggling and looked at Ray with a sorry expression, "LOOK WHAT YOU'VE DONE!" he yelled whilst pointing animatedly at the back of Ray's head, which could be partially seen sticking out into the aisle. Kai rolled his eyes and flung himself down across the back seat. Hilary ran up the center of the bus to calm everyone down, they were almost at the stadium.

 _'_ _Kai Hiwatari'_ he signed on the dotted line. Kai handed the contract back to the BBA representative over the help desk and slouched away, ready to explore London, alone of course. Tyson was shouting at him from the door telling him to hurry up. Kai knew all to well that Tyson only had one volume setting, but he was really getting on Kai's nerves. Shoving his hands into his pocket, Kai uttered a small, "hn", and sat down on a nearby bench, simply to be as annoying as possible. Tyson came marching over with a look on his face like a toddler searching for attention.

"So you're not coming with us?" he asked defeated.

"What do you think?" Kai replied blankly.

Tyson let out an angry noise, "why did we even bother bringing you with us this time!"

"Well you wanted to actually win, I assume." He smirked, arms crossed.

"If I wasn't stupidly hungry for fish and chips, I'd hit you!"

Kai was now picking at the skin on his knuckles again, acting as if he hadn't heard a word of what his fellow teammate had said.

"Fine, whatever, no fish and chips for you!" Tyson stormed off, putting his arm around Max, "WE'LL PROBABLY HAVE A BETTER TIME WITHOUT HIM ANYWAY!" Tyson shouted in the distance.

 _What an idiot,_ he mused, staring at his hands which were now completely devoid of dry skin thanks to his perpetual picking. He could hear footsteps approaching, _oh my god he's back_ was Kai's first thought, but looking up he saw a pair of shoes belonging to Ray.

"Can I wait with you?" Ray asked. His face looked tense, as if he were about to face an angry lion with nothing but his bare hands to protect himself.

"Yeah."

Ray sat down at the other end of the bench and for a while they stared ahead silently, watching various other teams sign up for the tournament, none of which either had ever seen before.

Ten minutes passed and eventually the door opened to reveal all four members of White Tiger X. They both watched as pink hair fluttered quickly up to the desk. Kai's eyes flickered towards Ray; he seemed utterly transfixed by that bright pink hair.

Another few minutes passed.

"Have you ever asked anyone out before?" Ray asked suddenly.

Kai opened his mouth to respond but held himself back, he didn't particularly want to answer that question. He may be the Bladebreakers captain, but relationship advice certainly wasn't listed within his job description. Finally, he decided it was better to give Ray an honest answer; after all, he was the only member of the team he could ever hold a serious conversation with.

"No." he stated, swiftly jumping to his feet and deciding it was time to leave. "You should find out what's wrong first, she seemed pretty pissed."

White Tiger X had seen them and was making their way over. They greeted Kai happily as he swiftly ignored them, letting the door swing shut behind him and leaving Ray to fend for himself.

"Kai!" he heard a familiar voice call out. He growled and looked up, would this relentless pursuit of people trying to talk to him never end?

"What, Tala?" He hadn't seen his former teammate since the end of the BEGA tournament; it looked as if he had fully recovered from the injuries inflicted by Brooklyn and it pleased Kai to see that he was doing well, not that he would ever admit that to anyone. Well ok, maybe he would confess such things to stay cats occasionally, but that was beside the point.

Kai wondered if Tala knew he had been to visit him on numerous occasions whilst in the hospital- hopefully he didn't- after all, that would be thoroughly embarrassing. Kai placed his hands into his pockets and walked down a few more steps so he was face to face with the redheaded blader.

Tala seemed to have grown yet another few inches over the winter; he must have been at least six foot two by now. His hair was also different, instead of looking as if he had airplane wings stuck to his head, his hair was long and hung limply around his face with a slight curl. Kai smirked; he looked like a die-hard Bullet For My Valentine fan or a struggling poet.

"Nice to see you too!" said his former teammate with an air of sarcasm, "yeah anyway, Mr. Dickinson's asked me to tell you to go back to the hotel, apparently got something he needs to discuss with you."

"Right…" Kai turned away, not entirely sure if he was willing to follow Mr. Dickinson's request. He saw Bryan out of the corner of his eye and quickly brushed past before he could be on the receiving end of yet more happy greetings.

"Oh, thanks for saying hey man, don't worry, we missed you too. Asshole!" called Bryan.

Kai laughed and spun around, casually sticking his finger up at Bryan. The lavender-haired blader nodded and smirked back as Kai wandered off to the taxi rank with a small grin on his face, wondering suddenly why Spencer wasn't with them.

Maybe he had missed them after all, just a tiny bit…

* * *

 _I hope you enjoyed this chapter :) its a bit shorter than I envisioned originally, but having shorter chapters definitely makes them more manageable. Do leave a review and let me know your thoughts! Thank you so much for reading! xx_


	3. Romance in the Rose Bush

Kai had been wandering aimlessly around central London for over an hour. He had decided against going to meet Mr. Dickinson, whatever he had to say, it could wait, hadn't the old man said they could explore London today anyway? Plus, it wouldn't be too much of a surprise; Kai rarely turned up where and when he was supposed to and just because he was slightly more mature now didn't mean that, that was something Kai wanted to change.

On his exploration of the city, Kai had managed to stumble across one of London's many great landmarks. He passed an old road sign that pointed in the direction he was heading, it read, _'Regents Park main entrance'_ following it, he soon found himself approaching two stone pillars that held a grand black and gold gilded gate. He paused for a moment to admire it, Kai really did love English architecture.

One he had passed through the parks threshold, Kai made his way to the garden. It was full of flowers and the perimeter of the large circular space was covered in rose bushes. Kai was quite sure he remembered his Grandfather telling him that Regents Park contained one of the greatest collections of roses in the world. It seemed a strange piece of information for his Grandfather to know, but Kai supposed that it was due to his desire to impress his English investors at fancy events to lull them into investing in his despicable schemes.

Kai had originally been searching for a place to train, but everywhere he looked, beautifully manicured flowerbeds and perfectly cut grass surrounded him. He may be an asshole, but he wasn't asshole enough to ruin the gardener's hard work, especially when he had such an appreciation for nicely cut grass. He would simply have to find somewhere a little less well kept, he thought, following the path to see where it would take him.

Out of the corner of his eye, Kai caught sight of a familiar face; it was his old teammate, "Spencer," _why are you here,_ he thought as he paused and shoved his hands into his pocket, quickly changing his direction and making a beeline towards the gangly teen. Clearly no one had informed the large blonde oaf about the tournament registration. How was Kai supposed to beat Tala in the tournament if the Blitzkrieg Boyz third member hadn't even made the registration date?

As Kai got nearer, he noticed that Spencer was trying to peer inside one of the many rose bushes. He kept pushing aside various branches and getting angry when whatever he was looking for wasn't there. Suddenly, a large hand reached out and grabbed his upper arm. Kai watched as Spencer was pulled into the depths of the bush. He raised an eyebrow, wondering what on earth kind of mothers meeting his former teammate was attending that required hanging out inside a giant hedge.

Curiosity spiked, Kai sat himself down on a nearby bench, just close enough to overhear the hushed conversation that ensued.

A velvety, raspy voice that Kai couldn't identify, obviously belonging to another man, traveled through the branches, "don't run away from me Spencer."

"I-I can't believe this-" Spencer began loudly, he sounded so alarmed that Kai jerked around, ready to pull Spencer out of whatever weird situation he had got himself into, but he needn't have worried as the scuffling quickly subsided.

"Shhh! Aren't you happy to see me?" Kai could hear a smirk lingering on the other mans lips.

"I don't understand! Am I dreaming?"

Spencer was never much of a bright spark, thought Kai as he traced his finger around a knot on the wooden bench. The other man chuckled dryly, "no Spence, you're not dreaming. It's been a long time." Kai didn't like his tone; he seemed to sneer with every syllable that left his mouth.

"Yeah, long time."

"Three years to be exact." The voice stated matter-of-factly.

"Yeah, three years…" Spencer's voice trailed off as if not knowing what to say next, "sorry I just- I'm in shock y'know. It's just I thought you were, well, gone."

"I know." The man's voice wavered slightly as he sighed, "I'm not angry at you." Although the way he said it made Kai think he was quite the opposite.

The bush rustled slightly as one of the two men moved. There was a long thirty-second pause in which Kai leaned back slightly, trying to get his ear as near as possible without looking suspicious.

"So, I guess you must still feel the same," the velvety voice was back. _That was an odd thing to say_ thought Kai, wondering what they could be talking about.

"Uhh.. Yeah," Spencer whispered back in the softest most innocent voice Kai had ever heard him utter. "Of course I feel the same, you were, well, everything to me!" It was slowly dawning on Kai that this was not the type of private conversation he felt comfortable listening in on.

"Good." The guy said curtly. One of the branches creaked as if being relieved from the weight of being sat on. "I'm going back. I just wanted to see you before we bumped into each other and things got awkward."

"O-ok, but I'll see you soon right?" The poor blonde oaf sounded like a hopeful little boy and Kai was had a sneaking suspicion that whoever Spencer was talking to, had wrapped him around his little finger.

The guy smirked, "maybe you'll see me sooner than you think. Oh and, you better keep my secret."

"O-of course! Your secret is my secret." And with that, the other man rustled off out of the other side of the bush.

Quickly realising he was about to get caught eavesdropping, Kai shot up and made to look as if he was casually walking down the path, away from the bush without a care in the world. He heard a few branches crack and then, "Kai? What are you doing here?"

Kai turned around and looked questioningly at his former teammate as if he had just appeared from thin air. "Trying to find somewhere to train," he grunted, "wait, were you following me?" he asked, trying to act surprised.

"Wha-what, no!" Spencer replied dumbly, scratching his head. "I was just um, er, doing the same actually!" Kai surveyed him with what he hoped was a suspicious look on his face.

"Hnnn, you do realise the tournament registration is today right?"

"Yeah, I registered earlier, woke up before Bryan and Tala, had to meet someone…" explained the blonde, suddenly looking as if he had said too much.

"I thought you said you were looking for somewhere to train," Kai raised an eyebrow as they began to walk towards a sign labeled _Sports Field._

"Uhhh, well yeah, I mean I was going to meet them and then go train but then I didn't end up meeting them and it was just, well, yeah."

Kai pulled a face and decided not to press Spencer for any further information, "right…" he replied slowly, "well as riveting as your Monday morning has been, I'm a little bus-" before he could finish his sentence a loud ringing noise interrupted him. Spencer quickly pulled an old phone out of his pocket and shoved it up to his ear.

"Hullo." A muffled, strained voice was hurriedly jabbering down the phone at him. "Yeah I'm sorry Mr. D." Spencer replied. "Actually he's with me, I'll bring him back with me, hey wait! Kai come back!"

Kai had already shoved his hands in his pocket and was walking away with increasing speed.

"Dude Mr. D has been looking for you for hours!" Spencer called as he caught up, "you would think you'd show him a bit more respect after everything he's done for you over the years!"

The last thing Kai wanted right now was a lecture from a burly dumb oaf.

"Come on, we gotta go meet him!"

"We?" Kai paused, slightly confused.

"Yeah we! Y'know, me, you, Tala, Bryan, all of us!" Spencer explained as if it was the simplest concept to grasp.

Kai made to walk away again as the taller boy grabbed his arm, Kai glared at him angrily. "I dunno if you forgot, but here's a reminder," he growled, "I'm-not-on-your-team-anymore!"

Spencer gazed innocently back at Kai's angry face, he looked deeply hurt, "That's not what I'm saying, Mr. D just wants to speak to all of us! Don't shoot the messenger!"

Kai let out an agitated, exasperated noise and rolled his eyes, "fine! Whatever, legs go."

* * *

 _Hello friends, hoping you are all well ^_^_

 _I hope this isn't progressing too slowly but I swear, I have sooo many side plots and romances and main plot lines and ahhhh! I want to explore all the characters and their relationships from Kai's point of view along with him having to deal with all his own life crap (which will become apparent in the next chapter mehehe) I just want it to be perfect so I'm gonna take it slow, I hope thats ok!_

 _Sorry I got a lil overexcited then. Anyway, I rly hope you e_ njoy this chapter!


	4. The Blitzkrieg Boys are back!

_Hope you're all fab! Sorry that its taken me two weeks to update, I went on holiday . but anyway, on with the chapter!_

Questions were racing through Kai's mind; why did Mr. Dickinson need to speak with all four of them? Surely the old man hadn't forgotten that he was no longer on the same team as Tala, Bryan and Spencer? No, that wasn't it. Maybe Kai needed to formally leave the Blitzkrieg Boys before taking part in the next championship. Surely not, switching teams had never been an issue in the past. Kai sulked quietly into his chair as he revisiting the many times he had betrayed his friends. _I'm an ass_ , he thought, staring out of the window.

Both he and Spencer were sat alone in the lobby of the hotel. Neither of them spoke and the entire journey from the park to the hotel had been quite the same. Kai wished that the old man would hurry up; Spencer was fidgeting more and more as time went by and Kai was subsequently becoming more and more irritated by the second. During one particularly fidgety movement, Spencer caught Kai's eye and Kai glared back, but Spencer seemed not to notice. Kai frowned and looked the other way, clearly something was up. He pondered for a few moments, mind harking back to the conversation he had overheard in the park. He turned back to survey Spencer again, wondering what secret he might be keeping, that was until Kai decided that he didn't give a rats ass, and went back to staring out of the window with an aloof expression upon his face.

"Boys!" they both jumped at the stressed voice that had traveled over to the sofa. _Finally!_ Thought Kai who quickly raised himself from his seat and walked towards Mr. Dickinson. He did not look impressed.

"Kai, you're late!"

"Hn," Kai grumbled in response.

"Don't give me that attitude, I had something very important to discuss with you outside of this meeting but now it shall have to wait!" Mr. Dickinson began to walk off and Kai and Spencer took this as an invitation to follow him.

They passed an area full of comfy looking plump purple sofas, the lighting was dim and the floor glistened from the reflection of the small ceiling lights. They followed Mr. Dickinson through a large marble archway, down a small side corridor and then into a private lounge. "Make yourselves comfortable, I'm going to go and wait for Tala and Bryan to arrive." He waddled out of the room hurriedly.

Kai looked around, the room was of a decent size, big enough to fit two of the velvet sofas he had seen in the communal living room and a mahogany coffee table. Kai selected a red armchair that had been pushed into the corner, slightly away from the sofas. It was quite comfy; he could imagine it would be a nice place to have a nap. He gazed at it enthusiastically but decided against it, imagining how Tala would never let him live it down if he discovered Kai curled up cozily in an armchair, hugging a fluffy gold cushion.

Instead, he retrieved his blade from his pocket and began to examine it, noticing a few scratches. He wondered when Kenny would be upgrading it to the second metal system. Fifteen minutes passed as he thought about the pros and cons of the newest release, until the door opened to reveal Tala and Bryan, closely followed by Mr. Dickinson and a woman who worked at the hotel, she was pushing a silver teacart similar to that which he had seen upstairs that morning.

"Fancy seeing you here, Kai." Said Bryan, grinning evilly again. Kai ignored him.

"Just sit down, Bryan." Tala cut across and Bryan stopped talking immediately and sat down on the velvet sofas. The entire team looked very casual and somewhat careless, Tala even stretched out and put his feet up on the mahogany coffee table with his hands resting behind his head. Kai rolled his eyes; they were so full of themselves.

"Tea, boys?" asked Mr. Dickinson, pouring five cups, not that any of them had said yes. They all sat there silently as the older man handed them each a china cup. Kai stared at the light brown liquid and wrinkled his nose; he had never been much of a tea drinker.

"Ok then, let me tell you boys why I've asked you all to meet me here this afternoon, or this morning for some of you I may add," Mr. Dickinson settled himself in a large purple armchair and cast a pointed glance in Kai's direction.

"I've recently been informed of a few things that I think you the four of you ought to know," he placed his hands together, looking as if he was trying to find a way to word his next sentence. Kai wanted nothing more than to tell Mr. Dickinson to spit it out, but quickly remembered that Mr. Dickinson wasn't Tyson and that, that would be incredibly rude.

"Stop beating around the bush Mr. D! The fact you've dragged Kai here surely means one thing!" Tala piped up, "Boris!" Clearly Tala had a little less respect for Mr. Dickinson than the boy currently occupying the red chair.

"Indeed Tala, you read right through me," Mr. Dickinson admitted, half smiling, and with that, he began.

"I've been informed that late last week, Balkov Abbey burned down." Tala raised an eyebrow and there was a small silence followed by a sarcastic _'wahoo'_ noise from Bryan. "The Russian police are treating it as arson."

Kai wondered why this had anything to do with them. If Mr. Dickinson thought he cared about that dingy, miserable place he had grown up in, then he was sorely mistaken. Kai had no sentimental feelings towards the abbey and was in fact, pretty pleased to hear of its demise. Regardless, he barely even remembered his time there.

"What does this have to do with us?" Tala asked sharply, crossing his legs and folding his arms.

"I know you boys broke ties with the abbey when you left at the end of the first world championship, but I believe- or more- I've been informed that the authorities intend to bring you in for questioning in regards to the case." said Mr. Dickinson, looking nervously between all four of them. Again, Kai wondered what this had to do with him; especially having not been to Russia since spring the previous year.

"Wha-why!" Tala demanded, "We've got nothing to do with it!"

"I know Tala, but you've got to understand the authorities have no idea where to start, so obviously they'll question you first," He nodded tentatively towards him, "anyone with a known grudge against Boris Balkov is of interest to them, you've never been particularly quiet about your hate towards the man."

Tala was getting increasingly angry; "They'll be questioning a hell of a lot of people then! This is fucking ridiculous, I have better things to do with my time, I have a championship to win!"

Kai snorted into his tea.

At this, Mr. Dickinson smiled, "that's all very well Tala but I'm afraid this is more serious than the beyblading championships."

"I've waited a whole year for another chance at the title and you're telling me to just throw it away for something I don't even want to be- and wasn't- involved in!" Tala demanded.

"Hmm yes I understand your disdain with the situation.." Mr. Dickinson leaned back in his chair.

"Disdain? DISDAIN? I'm livid!" Tala's face had gone bright red.

"Quiet!" Kai spoke, "we're gonna need more details."

"Thank you, Kai!" the elderly man said gratefully as Tala grumpily hunched his shoulders. "Unfortunately there is more. As you know, after the first world championship police investigated the BioVolt Corporation thoroughly, however, they found no wrongdoing had occurred at the abbey. All of the evidence had been removed without a trace!"

"Yeah," interjected Kai angrily, "we already know- Voltaire hushed it up."

"Yes Kai, no matter how much knowledge you four have about the abbey-" Kai thought momentarily about how little he knew and how little he wanted to find out- "there's absolutely no evidence to support that it was anything but an ordinary orphanage," Kai was doubtful of this, he himself had nightmares, numerous scars, and a terribly bad case of 'I was abused as a child and now I hate the world' syndrome. He was quite sure that was evidence enough to show that something incredibly twisted had happened where he grew up.

"Now, in addition to the Abbey burning down, someone, somewhere, has evidence, and they handed it in to the authorities just last week, causing the investigation to be reopened. In fact, I believe it was just after the fire." The four of them stared at Mr. Dickinson, mouths slightly open, looking half elated and half devastated. "You're all going to be called in to help identify and provide any information you can in regards to the evidence."

Kai felt his stomach begin to summersault, he didn't particularly want to reopen this part of his life. He had locked it away in an imaginary box, which ironically looked like an evil Russian doll. He had forced the doll and it's many layers into the back of his mind, never to be seen again, or so he thought.

"Justice." Bryan hissed, mockingly raising his fist into the air, which was quickly withdrawn with a small punch from Tala.

"It's not a joke!" the red haired boy snapped, he leaned forwards over the table towards the senior, banging one of his fists down which such force, one of the teacups rattled and fell over. Spencer on the other hand, still on the plump sofa, pulled his knees up to his chin and was staring worriedly at the wall opposite.

Kai was sure that this was something Tala and Bryan had wanted ever since their departure from BioVolt, but Spencer, although being incredibly strong, was much more of a softer character, Kai always thought of him as an incredibly docile pit bull. Spencer probably wanted to forget about his past just as much as Kai did.

 _Too late,_ thought Kai, sighing as the questions began.

"Who?"

"What evidence?"

"What's going to happen now?"

"Has Boris been arrested?"

"What's going to happen to…" Bryan and Tala trailed off and slowly, in unison, turned their heads to stare directly at Kai.

"My Grandfather?" he said, finished their question, staring lazily at the floor, although he wasn't really looking at it. He had just realized that if his Grandfather were to go to jail, it would mean his own life would be thrown completely into chaos. He was next in line to Hiwatari Enterprises.

Kai continued to focus on the extravagant patterns of the hotel carpet; it was the only thing he could think of to keep himself rooted to that red chair and not bolt immediately out of the door as the voices around him began to get more and more angry.

"I'm very sorry to say Kai, but your Grandfather was arrested this morning. As I understood it, it's going to take months to sift through the evidence, but apparently there is already an overwhelming amount." Kai's heart plummeted, he wasn't sure what to think, thought's just kept racing through his head.

"What about Boris!" Tala demanded, who had returned to his seat but was sitting bolt upright.

"Unfortunately Boris is currently missing."

"WHAT!" Demanded Tala and Bryan in disbelief, "how can he be missing? This is absolute crap!" shouted Tala, balling up his fists.

Kai had heard enough; he stood up, legs shaking slightly.

"Kai? Are you leaving?" Mr. Dickinson said worriedly. Kai ignored him and began to walk past the coffee table and slowly over to the door. "Kai I understand this is probably the last thing you want to hear, but as I said before, I have a few things I need to discuss with you!" he urged the teen to stay.

Kai didn't respond as he grabbed the door handle and yanked it open, letting it slam shut behind him with the same velocity. Panic began to set in; he ran down the corridor in search of a toilet, luckily, he was alone. He spotted a bathroom sign on his left; and crashed through the door underneath it, straight into the nearest cubicle, heaving over a seat. He tried to remember the last time he had thrown up; it must have been before the championship match with Tyson. He couldn't remember ever being that nervous before, but that was a different type of nervous, it was mingled with excitement, this however, was pure hell.

Kai hadn't seen his grandfather for a month and prior to that, it had been an entire year. He had meticulously planned his entire life for the past three years around avoiding the imposing man.

Three years ago when the first world championship ended, the BioVolt trial began. Kai was subjected to months of tedious questioning but it ultimately materialized into nothing. The charges dropped, due to lack of evidence, and Voltaire and Boris once again roamed the earth as free men.

After this, Kai went straight to boarding school where he remained for a whole year, not returning to the Hiwatari mansion once. He didn't have any friends there, apart from some annoying kid named Wyatt, not that he would exactly describe Wyatt was a friend, but he turned out to be more important than everyone else at that damn school.

Eventually, as the summer school holidays kicked in, Kai ended up at Tyson's house. It wasn't necessarily his first choice of places to stay, but it was a lot better than having to go home and face his Grandfather. He had been pretty sure that by not returning to the mansion, he was probably making things worse, but at the time he hadn't cared. Kai actually felt that had been the happiest time of his entire life; he had spent a lot of time with the Bladebreakers, and it had actually been fun (well, kinda). He was (somewhat) able to open up to his teammates, and shockingly was actually willing to talk to them on a daily basis. In fact one night he even bought Tyson a pizza because he thought he looked sad. Kai spat a little bit more sick into the toilet bowl just thinking about it.

After the second world championships, everything changed. Kai had intended to go back to Tyson's; he only had a week before he was sixteen. For the past year he had scrimped and saved every last bit of money that he could get his hands on, which wasn't much. His Grandfather was still technically his legal guardian and he was required by law to pay for Kai to live, but only gave him the smallest amounts of money. Despite this, Kai had amounted enough to be able to pay for a deposit and two months of rent on a small flat, and intended to do so as soon as he turned sixteen. He had signed all the paperwork and his deposit was meant to be going through that very day, but in the early evening he received a phone call from the bank to say that actually, his account had been emptied a few days previous. Of course, it was Voltaire, clawing him back to the Hiwatari Mansion, and when he got there, well; he didn't want to think about it.

That last thought made him empty the rest of his stomach into the bowl. He threw himself back against the side of the cubical, gasping for breath.

Kai spent that entire summer living in an abandoned warehouse near Tyson's. He was too embarrassed to tell his teammates he hadn't moved into the flat. When they asked, he merely explained that it was too small for them to all visit, so they may as well just meet at Tyson's dojo as always. _Well that was a downright lie_ , he thought, panting for air.

Gradually, he stopped visiting the dojo and training with his team and soon enough, he was on a plane to Russia to join the Blitzkrieg Boys. He felt like shit, and he had to prove himself. His only option was to defeat Tyson. He had to prove to himself that he was actually worth something. He slammed his fist into his temple; _don't think about that,_ he told himself aggressively.

After his championship defeat, Kai found out that his grandfather was away on business in Russia for six months, and so he returned to the mansion. Now Kai thought about it, it was a bit suspicious, he was pretty sure his Grandfather cut all business ties with Russia after the BioVolt Investigation. When Voltaire had unexpectedly returned to the mansion a month ago, he had bolted, back to the warehouse for a few weeks until he left for London with the rest of his team.

Kai sighed; this was not his idea of a peaceful life.

A loud squeak from the bathroom door told him he was no longer alone, he stood up quickly, wiping his mouth on a piece of toilet tissue and flushed, slowly opening the cubicle door and peering out, he was greeted by a familiar blonde haired boy.

"Kai!" Max said enthusiastically, spotting Kai in the mirror and spinning around. "Man Tyson was so pissed you didn't come with us earlier!" his voice was way too happy.

"Hn." He replied, stepping towards the sink, turning the tap slowly and washing his hands.

"Hey man are you ok? You're really pale…" Max was peering at his face and he was way too close for comfort.

Kai flinched away, "I'm always pale."

"Heh heh, if you say so! Oh hey, guess who I just met in the lobby?" Kai ignored his teammate and popped his head under the water fountain, gulping down water as Max jabbered on, "one of the new teams! They're called Duality- I think- yeah definitely Duality!" Max looked excitedly at him in the mirror and Kai stared back blankly thinking about how much he didn't care. "Have you seen the girl? The little one, lilac hair…."

"I've seen her." He replied dryly.

"SHE'S SO CUTE!" Max was jumping up and down excitedly.

Kai inhaled a deep breath and turned away, he couldn't believe he had ended up in a conversation about how cute a girl was."Hn." He dried his hands on a paper towel and threw it angrily into the bin.

"She's so nice! I'm thinking of inviting her to my room tonight to ask her about her team, maybe we'll learn a thing or two!" he sounded like a excitable puppy.

"Hn." Nice? Was that a joke? Kai knew Max's efforts would be pretty fruitless if his previous conversation with that girl was anything to go by.

"Do you wanna come too?" Max asked innocently.

He surveyed his teammate and then replied bluntly, "I'd rather throw myself off the top of The Shard."

"Don't say that, she's lovely, apparently she's an amazing blader too!"

Kai bent back down for another few final gulps of water; maybe if he stayed there long enough he would be sucked into the plughole, never to emerge again. He straightened up, alas, he was still in the real world, and Max was still talking.

"She even let me call her Issy!"

"Max?"

"Yeah Kai?"

"Shut up."

 _Hope you enjoyed this chapter, pls do leave a review :))) Where should I take the story next? Who should be the focus of my next chapter ehh?_


	5. 8:00 AM

**_Hope you all had a lovely easter_** ** _J_**

 ** _CHAPTER 5_**

 ** _8am_**

 ** _DAY 3_**

It was 8am and Kai had been rolling over and over in bed for the past seven hours. The previous day had been exhausting, not physically, but mentally; his head was pounding from the sheer stress of thinking about it, which was probably not helped by his lack of sleep.

Balkov Abbey had burnt down; well, that wasn't exactly a bad thing, but the arrest of his Grandfather, the disappearance of Borris and this so called mysterious evidence, what the hell was that? Kai felt as if he was caught in some tacky daytime TV mystery series. The last thing he wanted to do right now was answer questions from prying investigators, not to mention identifying evidence and cooperating by providing background information on BioVolt and his Grandfather. Hell, that was the last thing Kai wanted to think about. Didn't he have a championship to win, anyway?

In all honesty, Kai could barely remember his past. His memories of the Abbey were vague, he knew he grew up there, and occasionally, he would experience flashbacks, especially during his nightmares, but apart from that, he had no knowledge of the place that he had grew up in. It was like he had a few pieces of the puzzle but the rest had got lost somewhere along the way, and Kai had absolutely no interest in finding them, especially when his nightmares were anything to go by.

Kai stared up at the ceiling absent mindedly, he could hear a light knocking sound coming from down the hall but chose to ignore it.

He wondered whether he would have to take time off from the tournament; he didn't want to, he just wanted to blade, that's all he had ever wanted to do. Plus, Tyson would be livid; he had finally convinced Kai to get onboard with the team again and all of a sudden he might have to leave? This time he didn't even want to leave! Kai could just imagine his teammates face swelling up like a giant red balloon. He punched the pillow into a comfier position and growled into it.

Why was he panicking? There was no telling what would happen yet, so instead of moping around in bed for hours, Kai figured he should simply get on with his life and let the pieces fall where the may. "Hah. Hah." He growled, punching the pillow again. _Fat chance._

 _Knock, knock, knock._ Kai sighed, realizing the distant knocking was in fact someone knocking on his own hotel room door. He flopped over to stare at the ceiling again, maybe if he ignored it for long enough, whoever it was would get lost.

 _Ding dong,_ "hnnnnnnnn!" whoever it was, was now repeatedly pressing the doorbell, or maybe it had been going off all along? He wasn't quite sure; he had been too lost in thought. Kai gave the ceiling one last fleeting look and then crawled out of bed and into a pair of joggers, pulling his socks on slowly as the doorbell continued to ring in his ear.

"Kai!" he recognized that voice, it was Mr. Dickinson. Kai sighed; he didn't want to talk about his feelings with some old man that he _kinda_ knew. Suddenly images of Kai sitting upon a chase lounge, cuddling a box of tissues while the old man asked him how he felt sprung to mind. Kai quickly swatted that thought away; maybe Mr. D had even more bad news to bring. He wandered down the hall and grasped the handle. Slowly, the door creaked open.

The stout old man stared back at him with a grim smile upon his face, "Ah, finally! Good morning Kai, how are you?"

"Hn."

Mr. Dickinson rebuffed Kai's lack of enthusiasm and invited himself into the hallway, "you're not looking too well Kai, are you ill? Bad nights sleep?" Kai quickly turned towards the hallway mirror and caught a glimpse of his disheveled self. His hair was sticking up all over the place, and not in a good way. He placed his palm onto the side of his head, trying to flatten a particularly unruly piece of hair as Mr. Dickinson shuffled past him.

"I'm not surprised, maybe I should make you some coffee…" Mr. Dickinson wobbled down the hallway.

"Hnnn," Kai pulled himself away from the mirror made to stop the man from faffing but he had already entered the kitchen and was figuring out how to work the coffee maker. "I'm fine, you don't nee-"

"No, no, Kai, after all I am responsible for you while you're here!" said the old man cheerfully. Kai sighed and sat himself down on one of the breakfast stools and rested his elbow on the work surface. "Have you been worrying about yesterday?" Mr. Dickinson asked as the coffee machine kicked into gear. Kai ignored him and stared straight ahead at the fridge. "I see." He pottered over with two full mugs to steaming coffee and passed one up to Kai and then, to Kai's surprise, managed to also hoist himself up onto one of the bar stools.

"I'm afraid I have little more to discuss with you, but then I promise I'll go away!" he joked. Kai stared at him with the most serious face he could muster. "Ehh… yes well, in the event that Voltaire remains in custody for the entire term of the trial, the estate and all of Hiwatari Enterprises will be transferred to you on your eighteenth birthday."

Kai stared at the steam spiraling from his coffee for a few moments and replied, "I know."

"Oh, you do?" Mr. Dickinson sounded surprised, "then you know you'll be the sole owner and CEO of the company?"

"Right." Kai replied dully, opening the cutlery draw and taking out a large soupspoon. He held the spoon up to his face and examined the distorted bags under his eyes. He looked like shit.

"Well I suppose that makes things a little easier then!" said the old man cheerfully; pushing some papers he had in his hand back into an old briefcase. "Thankfully, you do have a few months to prepare." Mr. Dickinson said happily.

"Yeah, I know when my birthday is, thanks." If this was all Mr. D had come to tell him, Kai wasn't very impressed.

Mr. Dickinson stared at him worriedly. "Oh Kai, I do hope you're ok."

"I'm fine," he shrugged; glancing at the old mans face, "honestly!"

Mr. Dickinson surveyed him for a few tense moments, "Hmmm, I'm afraid you don't fool me Kai. I think there's quite a sensitive young man under that thick shell of yours." Kai raised an eyebrow, "if you wont talk to me, at least consider telling Tyson and the rest of the team."

He swiftly jumped down from his seat, blood boiling. Kai couldn't think of anything more belittling than being referred to as a _sensitive young man_ , plus he didn't need to talk to anyone; all he needed was to be alone. Kai stomped over to the kitchen door and pulled it open, "wait- Kai!" Mr. Dickinson called after him and he could hear the old man clambering awkwardly down from his chair.

Kai, who was already waiting at the front door, gritted his teeth and turned around to face the man. "Look, I've got to get ready, the first match is today."

"I didn't mean to offend…." He trailed off.

"Hn." Kai opened the door and stood back.

The old man wandered back over the threshold and out into the hall looking defeated, "if you need anything, I'm here, you know that?"

Kai looked away angrily. "I know."

He was about to slam the door shut but before he could move, the door opposite creaked open. "Oh!" Exclaimed Mr. Dickinson, shoving his foot back into the suite. _Sneaky git_ , thought Kai.

"Kai, I don't believe you two have met! This is Isobella," sure enough, there she was, peering at the two of them silently, gripping the door with both hands. "Isobella, this is Kai!" the two surveyed each other and Isobella raised an eyebrow. Kai wondered if it was the strange bit of hair that was standing up in an odd direction or if it was his overall disheveled appearance that was obviously causing her some confusion.

"Isobella is apart of team Duality, they're a new team this year you see, representing the UK!" Mr. Dickinson looked between the two bladers who simply stood there and were now trying their best not to look at each other.

"Isobella is a very talented beyblader, I'm sure the two of you would get on really well!" Kai glared at him. _Like hell_ he thought, eyes jerking back to catch another glimpse. She was staring adamantly at the carpet. Mr. Dickinson seemed to have realized neither bladers were about to utter even a single word to each other and so, rather awkwardly, he continued, "so, are you getting ready for today's match?"

Kai's ears perked up.

"Not yet, I heard your voice and wanted to thank you for what you did for my brother, I'm grateful." She said with a small smile, or was it a grimace? Kai couldn't quite tell.

"O-oh no need to thank me at all," Mr. Dickinson replied, surprised by her change in tone, "but you are very welcome!" he beamed back at her.

A loud voice could be heard echoing from inside the other hotel room, "IS THAT MR D?" the voice said as it got closer, "OH MAN, HEY, HOW ARE YOU MR D?" A tall, mousey haired boy poked his head excitedly around the doorframe as Isobella recoiled away.

"Can you not." She said blankly.

"Hehe, sorry little one!" the boy giggled, pushing past her to give Mr. Dickinson a hearty hug. Kai smirked as Isobella scowled at the boy.

"Oh I say, what a lovely greeting, how are you James?"

"I'm so pumped for the tournament Mr. D!" Kai was instantly reminded of Tyson and made a mental note to never let them become friends.

"Kai, this is James, another member of Duality! James, this is Kai, a member of the Bladebreakers!" Kai surveyed the boy and nodded.

"Oh! Hi! So cool to meet you!" James thrust out his hand to shake Kai's; only Kai recoiled leaving James awkwardly hanging in the balance. He quickly recovered by running his hand through his hair.

"Hey wait, wow, you're Kai!" Kai wondered how the boy had only just noticed this having just been introduced as _'Kai'_. "Kai Hiwatari?" _Oh no._ "You're like, one of the best bladers in the world!" Yep, he was one of those people, Kai thought, scowling at the phrase, _one of the best._ "Its an honor to meet you!" he thrust out his hand again for a second shot.

Kai grumbled, glancing quickly back and forth between Mr Dickinson and the boy. Slowly, he reached out for a very brief handshake.

There was a small snigger from the door opposite. Kai shot the girl a glare.

"Oh wow, I shook Kai Hiwatari's hand!" mumbled the boy gleefully, "I'm never washing again!" Mr. Dickinson began to chuckle. Kai rolled his eyes, wondering whether or not kicking Mr. D's foot out of the door would be crossing the line.

"Look Issy!" James waved his hand in front of his teammates face.

"Wow," she said in a mock-amazed tone, taking his palm in her own hand and examining it, "I'm so jealous." Kai glared at her again.

"Awww, don't be like that!" James replied as he pulled his hand back, "don't you want to say hi?"

She folded her arms, "no."

James stuck out his bottom lip and protested, "but he's like, one of the best bladers in the world!"

"Is he?" she questioned lightly. Kai glared at her again, who the hell was she.

"Think you could beat me?" Kai snapped.

Isobella grinned and made a little _'mhm'_ noise. Kai growled and opened his mouth angrily, "I'd like to see-" but Mr. Dickinson cut across him.

"Where is Issak?"

They stood there for a few moments, staring each other down and ignoring the older man until Isobella slowly broke eye contact. "I told him to get used to his new blade." She replied.

"Ahh I see, I would expect nothing less from such a strategic captain!" Mr. Dickinson replied proudly as James patted the girl's shoulder happily, making her sway under the force.

"You're captain?" Kai piped up.

She swiveled her eyes back up at him, "yes."

Kai surveyed her again, thinking about how small she was and how could anyone that small amount to being a captain. Then again, Daichi was small and he could really pack a punch. He seemed to have been pondering for longer than was polite before Mr. Dickinson decided to excuse himself. "Ah, well you three, I better be off!"

"Me too," James agreed, "my eggs benedict is getting cold! Bye Kai, IT WAS SO GOOD TO MEET YOU!" James called as he ran back inside the apartment and Mr. Dickinson toddled off down the hallway. Kai was never going to eat eggs benedict ever again.

Kai and Isobella were left standing alone in the hallway; they stared at each other silently. Maybe Max had been high when he had met Isobella. She sure as hell wasn't the same girl now as the girl who had been described to him the previous night. Kai shrugged it off; it was probably all a figment of Max's imagination.

Kai wondered when Duality's match was, he figured he might as well go and watch them, at least then he could then see for himself if she really was as good as she clearly thought she was. "When is your-" Kai began. _SLAM._ The door in front of him was slammed shut in his face.

Kai growled, confirming immediately how very wrong both Max and Mr. Dickinson were.

 _She's really nice!_

 _You'd get on really well!_

Kai shook his head angrily thinking about how little they knew him. There was no way in hell that he could get on with such a bitch. He turned on his heel and slammed the door behind him, hoping it would be loud enough to antagonize the girl across the hall. He was thoroughly looking forward to watching her match later; maybe they'd get paired up with F-Dynasty or the Blitzkrieg Boys, or better yet, The Justice 5. Kai grinned, he couldn't wait to see her get cut down.

 _Soooo what do you think?_ _J_ _Leave a review and let me know!_

 _What do you think will happen in the next matches ahhh?_


	6. Hotel Room Romance

**_CHAPTER 6_**

 ** _HOTEL ROOM ROMANCE_**

 _Ok this is a little bit of a silly but extremely necessary chapter. Its quite short but I really hope you like it! I've almost finished the next chapter too so that will be up soon yay!_

* * *

"Wake the fuck-up!" Kai growled at Tyson and Daichi's door for the fourth time that morning. It was 10am and Kai, Ray and Max were stood in the hotel hallway waiting for the rest of the team to join them. The two boys on either side of him, who were both leaning on opposite sides of the doorframe, chortled as they watched him become more and more angry.

"I'm not sure that's the most constructive approach, Kai," Max grinned playfully as he pressed his ear up against the wood. "Yep, I can hear snoring,"

Kai let out an exasperated noise. Trust Tyson and Daichi to make them late for the first match.

Ray rubbed his eyes wearily, glancing at his watch, "ah man… we need to leave soon." He banged on the door with his fist. "Oi! Kai and I will take your places in today's match if you don't hurry up!" There was a distant clicking sound from down the hall. Ray and Max looked at each other suspiciously, "wait, this is the right room isn't it?" Ray asked with a confused look on his face.

A small boy emerged carrying a laptop under his arm, "are they still not awake?"

"I wouldn't worry Chief, isn't this Tyson and Daichi's usual morning routine?" Max reassured him as Kenny frantically glancing between his watch and the door.

"I guess…" Ray shrugged, "they sleep in late, then they get woken up by Kai yelling at them, then they spend way too much time eating breakfast instead of brushing their teeth, and then they get yelled at by Kai again-"

"They're gonna get a smack in the face in a bit," Kai muttered.

Max laughed, "And that!"

"Wait where's Hilary?" Kenny asked.

"Uuuuh…."

"Ah crap, we forgot about Hilary," Max mumbled sheepishly.

Just then, there was the creak of a handle being pulled down and the door to Hilary's room opened. "Oh, there you are!" said Kenny happily, walking over to her as he opened his laptop. Hilary glanced up at the small computer nerd with a sleepy look on her face, which quickly turned to an expression that clearly said she was utterly shocked to see them all stood outside of her room.

"Oh my go-" she whispered, hurriedly yanking the door closed behind her. It was quickly followed by a loud _thump,_ which was succeeded by a sharp _argh!_ Hilary looked around nervously as all four of them stared at her and the mysterious noise. "Heh heh heh, morning!" she added cheerfully.

"Your door sounds as if its in pain-" said Max pointedly.

The door was swiftly yanked back open- "HILARY!"

Hilary sprung around in mock surprise, "T-t-t-Tyson! What are you doing there?"

"You just shut the door on me!" Tyson shouted angrily as he rubbed his nose and began pointing at it as if trying to get Hilary to assess if it was ok or not.

"Shhhh!" she whispered.

"What?" he asked, bringing his hand back up to his nose and dabbing at his nostril, "am I bleeding?" Tyson moved towards her without noticing the others and shoved his nose as close to her left eye as possible.

"Uhhh..." Hilary looked shellshocked. Tyson pulled his nose up at the point so that he looked like a pig and tried to get Hilary to look directly up his nostrils but she shook her head vigorously, casting fleeting looks between Tyson's impending face and the others who were observing silently with looks of absolute glee upon their faces.

"N-no! Tyson!" Hilary grabbed the boy's shoulders to stop him coming any nearer and directed him towards the others. Tyson turned, still holding his nose so that he looked like a pig.

"Well, well, well, good morning!" Ray grinned as Max shoved his hands into his pockets as a giant, knowing smile spread across his face.

Tyson quickly let go of his nose and rubbed his eyes wearily, "uhhhhh… morning," he mumbled, suddenly becoming quite subdued.

Kai rolled his eyes as Ray, Max and Kenny giggled. Hilary piped up, "we were, er, just going over strategies last night and we, just, y'know, fell asleep!" she was waving her hands about as if trying to swat away a fly.

"Yeah!" agreed Tyson, whose cap was on sideways. "Strategies!" he said forcefully, taking off his cap as he tried to flatten his hair, casting a reassuring glance at the girl next to him.

"Yeah Ray," said Max, elbowing him lightly in the ribs, "strategies!"

"Ahhhhh yes," agreed Ray, as he assumed a look of great wisdom, "strategies."

They all stood there awkwardly for a few, long and silent seconds as Tyson and Hilary tried to act as aloof as possible and Max, Ray and Kenny giggled quietly between them.

Kai sighed. "Right. Now that we've established that Tyson and Hilary are potentially fucking, can we leave?" he questioned saltily.

"EW, WHAT!" Tyson burst out immediately.

Hilary was waving her hands around in front of her face whilst shaking her head vigorously, "we've never-"

"There's no way would I EVER go there!" there was a small pause as Hilary turned to Tyson looking hurt. Max could be heard in the background making a small _oooooo_ noise. "Uh- I-" Tyson jittered, seeing her face.

"Well, thanks for that." Hilary said with a forced smiled as she swiftly regained her composure. She turned to face the rest of the team, "seriously, we were only discussing strategies." And with that she stomped off down the hallway.

"Uhhhhh," Tyson groaned and placed his head in his hand. Max made to put a hand on his shoulder but it was ignored as Tyson made a beeline towards Kai. "WHAT THE FUCK MAN! WHY'D YOU SAY THAT?" Kai stiffened as he was shoved against Daichi's door with alarming force.

Kai remained calm and smirked down at his teammate, "Dunno why you're getting so angry with me, I'm not the one who said I'd never go there."

Max and Kenny gasped in disbelief. A flicker of fear flashed across Tyson's face, "WHAT? You... I.." Tyson's face was contort with fear followed by disbelief, Kai smirked at him. "Oh my god, I hate you!" He spat, pulling Kai back from the door and shoving him forcefully against it again. Kai stared back into his teammates overly emotional round brown eyes. He wondered; why was Tyson so terrible at hiding his feelings? Kai momentarily felt sorry for him, until he swiftly realised that messing with his teammate was just way too much fun. Eventually, Tyson loosened his grip. "Just, ugh, stay away from her!" He mumbled as he roughly pushed Kai aside as he let him go. Kai smirked, watching his teammate shove his hands into his pockets and sulk off down the hallway.

"Wha-what just happened?" Kenny whispered.

"Maybe its pre-tournament butterflies," Max suggested.

Ray pondered for a moment, "yeah, or Kai just managed to hit a very sensitive nerve, heh heh…" Kai nodded in agreement and Max grinned.

"DON'T YOU REALISE I'M TRYING TO SLEEP?"

Kai, Ray, Max and Kenny whipped around. The door they had been clustered around for the past thirty minutes had opened and there he was, wrapped in a duvet whilst hugging a small teddy bear.

"DAICHI!"

* * *

 _I hope you enjoyed that amusing escapade, please do leave a review! Thanks so much to_ _Desires of Autumn Leaves_ _for your review it means so much to me!_


	7. The First Victory

_**CHAPTER 7**_

 _ **THE FIRST WIN**_

 _As promised, here's the next chapter, yay! Again, thank you so much to Desires of Autumn Leaves and wingsofpegesus for your reviews, and to those of you who followed, it means so much!_

* * *

The journey had been filled with excited chatter full of ideas and hopes for the tournament ahead. Ray, Max and Daichi (who was still in his pyjamas) were convinced the finals would be between them and the Justice 5 team, just like when they defeated BEGA, seeing as they were their toughest opponents to date. Kai felt his stomach do a little summersault and then peered around to make sure no one had noticed. He had absolutely no desire to go up against Brooklyn again, or even see him. Unlike Tyson, Brooklyn was a powerful opponent that Kai felt he would find absolutely no enjoyment in challenging again, although, that was mainly because Brooklyn was an asshole of the highest tier. Kai smirked and reclined slightly in his chair, staring at the ceiling until eventually his eyes must have closed as before he knew it, they were there.

Mr. Dickinson greeted them in the team room. "Hello boys, and Hilary of course!" he noted, giving a happy nod in her direction. "How are you all feeling today, did you get a good nights rest?" At this, Kai became acutely aware of how groggy he was.

"Yeah Mr. Dickinson, we went to bed early," Max replied. Kai couldn't help but notice two very strained faces that were being pulled by both Tyson and Hilary.

"I am so stoked to find out who we'll be battling first!" said Ray, sitting down on the sofa, clutching his Driger blade, examining it for any scratches.

"Oh it wont be long now Ray!" Mr Dickinson replied enthusiastically, "have you decided who will be blading today?"

"Obviously, ME!" Tyson grinned. Everyone ignored him.

"I wanna test out my new blade!" said Max excitedly thrusting his blade into the face of Mr. Dickinson who, although slightly alarmed, beamed at the sight of the new BBA defence ring.

"Oh my, a new blade, how very exciting Max! Clearly you will do us proud in todays match!"

"Its settled then- I'm blading in the first round!" Max skipped around the room.

"Uhhhh," everyone turned to face a very downtrodden looking world champion, "so how come Max gets a new blade before us? The tournament starts… uh, IN AN HOUR KENNY!" he whined. Kai rolled his eyes.

"Don't complain, I'll have your brand new Dragoon up and running in no time, its just been difficult to get new parts since BEGA and the first parts that were released were most suitable for Max's defensive style!" the Chief yawned.

"Oh… right, I guess that's alright then," Tyson said turning to look out the window, arms folded. Kai was quite sure that Tyson thought it was clearly not all right.

"I wouldn't mind blading toda-" Ray began, but he was quickly cut across by Daichi, who had been too busy peering out of the door at the doughnut stand to notice the conversation until then.

"I'M BLADING SECOND, AND TYSON'S THIRD!" Ray sighed and resigned himself to his seat, shaking his head slightly. Kai glanced at him, catching Ray's eye, Ray seemed to shrug his shoulders defeatedly in reply. "YAHOOOOO!" Daichi jumped up into the air, "I AM GONNA BEAT THEM SO HARD, I CAN'T WAIT, I'LL SHOW THEM WHOS A TRUE CHAMP!"

Kai sighed. "So I guess Ray and I will just sit and observe," despite having already chosen the lineup for the first match over a month ago, there was still an unmistakable twinge of annoyance in his voice.

"Aw come on Kai, you'll be able to blade in the next match!" Tyson said through a mouthful of burger.

"Wh-Where did you get that?" Hilary asked, rushing over to Tyson as she began to try and prize the burger out of his hand. Tyson, who had grown a good foot taller over the summer, ignored her and held the burger up in the air where she couldn't reach.

"Yea, if you manage to make it through of course," Kai added snarkily, jumping up from the sofa and heading for the door.

Tyson growled, "why is he being such a dick today?" he said in disbelief, thrusting his free hand into a bag of French fries and stuffing them into his mouth furiously, burger still elevated into the air out of Hilary's prying hands.

"Seriously, where did you get a burger and chips, Tyson?" Hilary asked, completely bewildered, snatching up the paper bag.

Tyson ignored her. "I'm Kai. I enjoy being a massive dick and I have a major superiority complex too!" he mocked, crossing his arms and assuming a very stern face and crass deep voice.

Kai froze a few steps down the hallway, "watch it Tyson, I'll stuff that blade of yours down your throat!" he heard the words echo down the hallway and back into the silent room.

"Ahh crap!" clearly Tyson hadn't realised that Kai was still within hearing distance.

"Now, now boys, that's enough squabbling, your match is in one hour!" said Mr. Dickinson leaning out of the door to catch Kai's eye, beckoning him to listen.

"Hnnnnn." Kai threw himself back against the hallway wall and waited.

"I must hurry off but before I go," said Mr. Dickinson, peering out of the door again to make sure Kai was still there, Kai didn't even bother looking at him but simply stared ahead at the floor. "I just came by to wish you good luck and to mention that tomorrow I shall be holding a meeting for all of the teams competing in the championships. We'll be discussing some of the exciting things to come during this year's tournament! I expect you all to be in attendance!"

"We'll be there Mr D!" chanted Tyson and Max.

"You can count on us!" Daichi growled.

"Wonderful! I'll be seeing you at the match then, good luck!" and with that he left the room swiftly, walking stick in tow, rushing past Kai.

"Oh Kai," Kai stiffened as the old man turned around, "do try to get on with your teammates, you'll need their support!" he scurried off.

"Hnn." He growled. _You'll need their support!_ What was that supposed to mean? Was Mr. Dickinson referring to the Abbey? Kai rubbed his eyebrow irritatedly. Like hell was he about to turn to those idiots for support. Especially when it came to his personal life. He didn't even need support, nothing of momentous importance had happened after all; just his Grandfather had been arrested, and _lets face it_ , Kai thought, _that's not exactly anything new_. He angrily kicked aimlessly at the floor and instantly regretted it as pain seared through his foot. _Arrrghhhhhh_.

* * *

Kai completed a slow lap of the stadium, he wasn't really paying attention to where he was going and his mind was certainly not on the match, after all, he wasn't blading, and therefore he didn't care. He climbed the stairs to the top of the stands to survey the arena; it was already full of screaming fans, he was surprised to see that there were both young and old in the crowd. He stood there and gazed around, his eyes settled on a group of children in front of him, there must have been at least ten of them. They were all excitedly chattering, waving flags emblazoned with their favourite team names, and some were even showing off their beyblades to their peers, faces full with glee. Kai wasn't sure how to feel about it, he couldn't ever remember being that happy at their age. In fact he couldn't remember being their age at all.

There he was again, back on the Abbey. He growled and looked away from the crowd, deciding to descend then stairs back into the auditorium. Back in the bustling hallway he fought his way back to the team room, on the way he noticed a screen, which seemed to be displaying all the different teams and the blocks they had been assigned to. "Finally!" he muttered, getting closer and assigning the two lists to memory.

 _ **BLOCK A**_

 _BLADEBREAKERS_

 _BLADE PSYKICKS (formerly TEAM PSYKICK)_

 _BLADESURFERS_

 _MAJESTICS_

 _PPB ALL STARZ_

 _WHITE TIGER X_

 _ **BLOCK B**_

 _BLITZKRIEG BOYS_

 _DUALITY_

 _F-DYNASTY_

 _JUSTICE 5_

 _SPINSNAKES_

 _THE BATTALION (formerly BARTHEZ BATTALION)_

 _That's interesting…_ he thought, noting that there were a few new names along with a few teams he though he might never see again. In fact, he was a bit disappointed. Block A seemed mediocre and repetitive; All Starz, White Tigers; Kai knew he could beat them. Plus it didn't help that all their best bladers had left to create possibly the most powerful team in the league. Kai noted that block B on the other hand looked far more interesting; it would be good to see how The Battalion fared without Barthez puppeteering them around all over the place. Plus the Justice 5 VS Blitzkrieg Boys; that would be interesting…

Kai turned on his heel and made his way back to his team, making a mental note to go and watch as much of block B as possible.

Before he knew it, they were back in the arena. Tyson, Max and Daichi, who had been way too overexcited for Kai's taste during the short walk to the stadium were now settled down on the team bench, gazing up at the screen above them that would soon divulge the name of the team they were about to face.

"HEEEEEELLLOOO TYSONNNNNN!" a voice boomed around the room, the entire team looked up in surprise to see a familiar face. Stood there on a small platform was the one and only DJ Jazzman, the official referee for the past four years. He beamed down at them, red bandanna tied tightly around his head.

"JAZZMAN!" Tyson jumped up excitedly, "WHATS UP?"

Jazzman gave the team a wink, "IT LOOKS LIKE THE BLADEBREAKERS HAVE ARRIVED, WELCOMING BACK THE REIGNING CHAMPIONS TYSON ANNNNNND DAICHIIIIIII- not of course forgetting their teammates, who just so happen to have rejoined their old team for this years tournament, MAX, RAY ANDDD THE ONE AND ONLY, KAIIIIII!" the crowd erupted with elated applause, screaming and stamping. The Bladebreakers stared in awe at the reception; it was a lot more intense than usual.

"This is crazy!" Max said in disbelief as he gawped at the crowd, Tyson grabbed Max's hand and hoisted it into the air making him wave back at everyone. Tyson then began shouting something along the lines of. 'Thank you, thank you my loyal followers!' Ray joined in sheepishly as Hilary and Kenny grinned from the sidelines. Kai stared at them all with an annoyed look on his face.

"Amazing, this makes me really happy, I hope we don't let them down!" Ray grinned at Kai, retreating back to bench. Kai ignored him.

"NOW, lets find out todays opponents!" Jazzman announced looking towards the giant screen on the wall which was currently half filled with a photo of the Bladebreakers. There was a loud drumroll and photos began to flicker between the different teams in block A until finally, it landed on a team that Kai didn't recognise. He lifted his head slightly to pay more attention. "THE BLADESURFERS!" _The Bladesurfers, who the hell are they?_ Kai thought, having never heard of them apart from seeing their name on the block lists earlier. He racked his brain for more information but none came, then they appeared. Kai sighed, they looked like idiots.

They were the epitome of clichéd surfer dudes; tanned, tousled hair that had been highlighted by the sun, swimming trunks that should only be worn during surfing (and not blading- Kai noted), and of course, they were shirtless. He heard a slight swoon emit from Hilary and turned to look at her in disgust, "seriously?" he asked, eyebrows so low they almost enveloped his eyes.

"Heheh… sorry Kai, but look at those muscles!" she said gleefully leaning forward on the bench in an attempt to get a better view.

Kai raised an eyebrow, he was pretty sure he was just as muscular as those idiots however he didn't run around topless in the hope that girls would fall at his feet.

"Awww, come on, they're not so hot!" Tyson exclaimed lifting up his shirt to show Hilary a somewhat unimpressive stomach.

"Oh Tyson! Put that away!" Hilary exclaimed pulling his top down and giving him a playful kick, which must have hurt like hell as Tyson let out a startled yelp and Hilary skipped back to the bench with a rather pleased look on her face. Kai rolled his eyes. "Come on Max, you're up first! GO MAX!" Hilary cheered encouragingly.

Kai watched as Max eagerly made his way up the steps to the beydish to face his opponent. "THE FIRST MATCH WILL BE MAX OF THE BLADEBREAKERS VERSUS JORDY OF THE BLADESURFERS!" announced Jazzman. Max pulled out his launcher and attached it his blade, he looked very much like he might fall over with nervous excitement. Kai watched as Jordy got his surfboard, which turned out to be a launcher, and pointed it towards the dish.

"They just keep getting more and more ridiculous.." Kai nodded in the direction of the surfboard as Jazzman shouted his famous _LET IT RIP!_

Ray chuckled lightly, "yeah… I don't see what's wrong with a regular launcher, I guess some people want to be individual."

"Individual indismidual!" Daichi said "my launchers the best!"

"COME ON MAX YOU CAN DO THIS!" Tyson shouted, ignoring Daichi who was now trying to show everyone how cool his launcher was.

Max was using his new defensive power at full force; no matter how much Jordy used his _Wave Attack_ it didn't seem to make a scratch on Draciel. "Ha! Ha! You're going to have to do better than that Jordy!" Max shouted at his opponent.

"Just you wait and see my ULTIMATE WAVE ATTACK!" Jordy roared.

" _Ultimate_ wave attack?" Max said, placing his hand on his chin in a very mocking manner, "well then. _Clearly,_ I better pull my socks up! ALRIGHT DRACILE COME ON THIS IS IT, FULL FORCE ATTACK!" Draciel sped up immediately and with great ease, knocked the other blade right from the dish.

"Nooooo!" shouted Jordy falling to the floor dramatically.

"Aw I'm sorry Jordy, that was a great battle, hopefully we'll get to blade again soon!" said Max holding out his hand.

"What is this absolute drivel?" Kai muttered from the bench, but no one seemed to hear him as the rest of the team all jumped to their feet in celebration.

"THAT'S OUR MAXXIE!" Tyson shouted as he flung his arms around his teammate.

"Way to go, man!" Ray clapped Max on the shoulder and grinned, "knew you could do it!"

Kai couldn't believe they were so impressed by such a one sided battle, it was obvious Max was going to win as soon as his beyblade hit the dish. It was also probable that Daichi's match would be over in seconds and Tysons would be just a formality.

Naturally, fifteen minutes later, Tyson knocked the third surfer dudes blade from the dish and waved up at the stands to roaring applause, Kai arose from the bench with an extremely bored expression upon his face. "Are you done yet?" he asked the rest of his team who were gleefully celebrating their first victory. The Bladesurfers had retreated back to their bench with deflated looks on their faces; Kai wondered how they had even made it this far. He shoved his hands into his pockets and began to stroll lazily out of the arena. He could hear the rest of the team following slowly behind, waving and shouting up at the crowd.

"Come and celebrate with us Kai!" he heard as someone grabbed his wrist, trying to pull him back to the rest of the team, it was Hilary. Kai flinched and yanked his arm away, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm alright," He replied coldly, "go with Tyson." She gazed at him and they exchanged a knowing look and then without uttering a single word, Hilary sprinted off and reappeared at Tyson's side with a bashful look on her face.

Kai sighed; those two had no idea what they were doing.

"I'm gonna watch the block B match, wanna come find a seat?" Kai whipped around in the direction of the voice, it was Ray.

"Uuh.. yeah." he said agreed, remembering his promise to himself to watch as much of Block B as possible. Kenny could be heard running behind them, clutching his laptop "Wait for me!"

They climbed the stairs of the stands and turned the corner. There stood another familiar face that Kai had seen only the previous day, however in contrast to their last meeting, he looked gaunt and downtrodden. He was leaning on the rail as if it was the only thing holding him up.

"Tala?"

* * *

 _Oooo who's going up against who? What happens next…_

 _Please do leave a review I love reading them they make me smile :)_


	8. Smoke

**_CHAPTER 8 - DAY 3_**

 ** _SMOKE_**

 _Thanks so much to_ _FlamingIce94_ _,_ _Cutetyhil_ _,_ _wingsofpegesus and_ _Desires of Autumn Leaves_ _for your reviews! You guys really spur me on; you're making me want to update more than once a week ahh! I mean I may as well eh?_

 _This is a long one! I tried to split it into two chapters but it just didn't flow well so you may want to grab a snack and get stuck in!_

* * *

"Tala."

The red-haired boy who usually exuded arrogance was standing in front of them in a hunched position, gripping the rail with a tense look on his face. Ray rushed forwards, "it's great to see you've fully recovered, Tala!" Tala ignored him, "how are you? Looking forward to the tournament?" Kai noticed a twinge of annoyance emit from the boy who was obviously trying to ignore everyone.

"Not really." said Tala gloomily, "although," he added in the same monotonous tone, "the competition certainly looks interesting" he nodded in the direction of the stadium floor. "Oh how revenge is sweet," he whispered eerily, staring directly at Garland, who was meditating on one of the team benches. Kai quickly remembered the battle between Garland and the Blitzkrieg Boys; the battle that had put Tala into a month-long coma.

No wonder he looks so gloomy, Kai thought, although he was quite sure that wasn't the only thing that was bothering his former teammate.

"Errr, right, I'm sure you will!" Ray nodded positively as he patted the Blitzkrieg Boy on the shoulder in what he must have thought was a comforting gesture. Tala recoiled looking disgusted.

"Uh, well, I guess I better go and find my seat!" Ray said uncomfortably, Kai watched as Ray awkwardly moved his hand away and turned to face Kenny, "see you later, come on Kenny!" he ushered the small boy and his laptop over to their seats.

Kai stepped forwards and leant over the rail, "I can't believe you jumped ship," Tala muttered at him.

"Whatever," Kai retorted, they were both staring, eyes focused on the Justice 5; Tala's eyes resting on Garland and Kai's on Brooklyn.

"Bryan's no match for Brooklyn and there's no way I'm swapping my match against Garland!" Tala mumbled, "don't tell Bryan I said that though…"

"So basically you want me to beat Brooklyn for you so you can advance?" Kai asked bluntly.

"I didn't mean it like that!" Tala snapped back at him. Kai raised an eyebrow; it was unlike Tala to doubt his team. "Are you seriously saying you don't want another chance at a championship match with Tyson?" Kai's eyes glazed over, that was exactly what he wanted but he didn't need Tala lecturing him about it. There were a few moments of silence while Kai ignored him, he didn't need to explain himself. Tala snorted in derision, "hah, right."

Tala quickly changed the subject, "have you heard anything else about… y'know...?" Ah yes, there it was, The Abbey. Kai adjusted his vision to focus on Tala's hands, they were hanging over the barrier and Tala was wringing them together with such force they had turned white from the pressure. Kai felt a pang of pity, unlike Tala, Kai couldn't remember anything from growing up in the Abbey- just little snapshots he experienced in his dreams, and those were bad enough. He couldn't begin to imagine what kind of memories were being unearthed in the deep confines of Tala's brain simply due to the place he once called home being brought up again.

"No." he replied curtly.

Tala growled, obviously irritated by Kai's lack of apparent empathy, "Yes you have! Oh forget it. I forgot you don't give a shit! That's why you ran out last night like a terrified little puppy. Anyway, I can't believe you've chosen to spend your time with those brats over us!" Kai felt a flame of anger boil inside of him, it took all of Kai's remaining energy to control himself, after all, Tala wasn't exactly having the best time.

"Those _brats_ visited you every day while you were in hospital and risked the future of beyblading to uphold your honor so maybe you should shut the hell up!" he spat and with that, he stormed off up the stairs looking for Ray and Kenny, although not before he had caught a glance of Tala's face as he swept by, he looked thoroughly taken aback.

"I wonder who will be blading first!" Kenny gushed with excitement, "I heard there are two new, never before heard of teams in this category, ah yes!" he said, pulling out the official BBA program, "Duality, and the Spinsnakes!" he read out loud, Ray was listening intently whilst Kai stared down at the six teams who were waiting to see if they would be randomly selected to blade in the first match. He watched as Tala walked across the stadium floor to join Bryan and Spencer who were stood at the far end of the groups. Then he noticed F-Dynasty, Julia was looking her usual pretty self (although Kai felt decidedly annoyed at himself for thinking such a thing). She was waving confidently up at the crowd, nudging Raul with her elbow in an attempt to get him to join in whilst Romero was surveying his audience, as if he were about to preform at a prestigious ballet concert.

The Justice 5 were also there; Garland appeared to have finished his pre-match meditation and was standing tall and proud next to Ming-Ming; who was waving at the crowd as if she were the queen. Mystel was nowhere to be seen, but that was to be expected. Crusher was stood a few meters away, chattering happily to a young girl who Kai assumed must be his little sister- "That's Crushers sister! She must have got better, I'm so pleased!" said Ray happily.

Brooklyn was of course, lying down on a bench at the side of the arena, looking as if he didn't want to be there.

Kais eyes flickered towards the two new teams, he recognized immediately the girl with lilac hair- _Isobella_ \- he reminded himself. She was stood next to two boys; one of them was James; the over-excitable boy whom he had also met in the hallway outside of his room. James seemed to be bouncing around on the balls of his feet with a goofy smile on his face; Kai was again, instantly reminded of Tyson. He didn't recognize the second boy, although he looked very similar to Isobella in many ways; the hair, face; the only difference was that his height was completely juxtaposed against Isobella's. Was Kai right in thinking this was the brother that Isobella had been so keen to thank Mr. Dickinson for helping out? He must have been at least 6ft tall, he had the same lilac hair that was messily covering his face and he was wearing a long leather coat which made Kai think of the film _The Matrix_.

The second unknown team was stood in the middle of all the groups looking nervous; they were each wearing green camo cargo shorts and a yellow t-shirt with the picture of a snake emblazoned on the front. Kai chuckled dryly; it was always amusing when teams had uniforms.

"They must be the Spinsnakes!" Kenny said, noting Kai's gaze.

Kai rolled his eyes in contempt at Kenny's obvious statement, but he didn't have long to judge, as just at that moment, Jazzman was climbing into the announcement box, brandishing a giant microphone.

"WELCOME TO THE BLOCK B TOURNAMENT KICK OFF! WHO WILL COMPETE IN TODAYS MATCH? LETS GET STRAIGHT TO IT!" he shouted eagerly. Everyone's attention had now turned to the screen, which began to flash between different photos of each team, and then, in the left box appeared "THE JUSTICE 5!" the crowd cheered as Garland, Ming-Ming, Crusher, Mystel (who had magically appeared as if from nowhere) and Brooklyn stepped up from the bench. "THEY WILL BE FACING-" the crowd waited with bated breath- "DUALITY!" there was mixed reaction from the stands as the small lilac haired girl and her team walked swiftly over to the opposing bench. Kai smirked; Duality would be on their way home soon enough.

"FROM THE JUSTICE 5, MING-MING!" Ming-Ming skipped up to the dish in her blading outfit, waving again to her fans as they chanted _'Ming-Ming!'_ over and over again in unison. Kai noticed Kenny shift excitedly in his seat."AND FROM OUR NEW-COMERS DUALITY- JAMES!" The brown haired boy made his way up the steps, launcher already loaded with a determined look on his face. The pair appeared to exchange pleasantries and then "3-2-1 LET IT RIP!"

"COME ON VENUS!" Ming-Ming's sickly sweet voice could be heard magnified throughout the crowd, James on the other hand remained quiet; he appeared to be concentrating hard on the battle. Kai felt somewhat relieved that he wasn't as obnoxious in the dish as he was in real life. Suddenly there was a muffled clatter on the seat next to Kai and he jerked his head away from the battle. Kenny was crumpled down into his seat and his laptop had hit the floor with a crash. Kai and Ray looked at each other with bemused expressions.

"Kenny, are you alright?" Ray said, alarmed at Kenny's sudden change in composure.

A low giggle emerged slowly from the mouth of the small crumpled teenager. "My darling Ming-Ming!" he said simply, gurgling slightly with a dazed look on his face.

"Jesus fucking Christ." Kai said, grabbing Kenny by the scruff of the neck as he pulled him back up into a normal sitting position. "Sit there, collect data and stop messing around!" He felt like a baby sitter. Of course, at that moment, Ming-Ming began to sing. It was one of her new songs; Kai couldn't quite decide whether it was more awful than the original or not. Naturally, Kenny became completely uncontrollable and slid down his chair again, ending up on the floor where he began thrashing around like a fish out of water.

"Incompetent asshole," Kai growled, giving Kenny a sharp nudge with his foot so the small computer nerd rolled down the isle of the stand, coming to rest roughly a meter away. Ray had a look of mild amusement on his face and was laughing nervously.

"Heh, heh, heh. Never learns does he…" Ray mused, laughing at Kenny who was now singing and waving his arms around from the floor. Kai shook his head and turned his head back to the match.

The two beyblades in the center of the dish were now heated in what seemed to be an intense battle; Ming-Ming had called out her bitbeast Venus but James seemed to be holding back. "I wonder what he's waiting for," Ray mused, but he needn't have wondered.

"COME ON LIONHEART TAKE HER OUT, ATTACK!" James called. _Interesting,_ Kai thought, realizing that James must be quite a tactical blader. It would have been useful to collect this information, however Kenny was still out of action; tossing and turning sporadically around the floor to the sound of Ming-Ming's highly irritating voice.

"Hnn.." Kai guessed he would just have tell Kenny later, along with letting him know how much he had let the team down.

"Wow he's really kicking it up a notch!" Ray watched excitedly.

"I wouldn't be too sure Ray, Ming-Ming looks awfully confident!" Moments later Ming-Ming stopped singing and was concentrating all her efforts into her blade, which was spinning circles around James, hitting the blade back into the center of the dish whenever it tried to escape. A look of panic appeared on James's face.

"Come on Lionheart, don't give up on me-" but it was too late, the blade had left the beydish and landed with a harsh crash on the floor behind him.

"Aw man.." Ray sighed.

"Yep," Kai agreed.

Kai and Ray turned to gaze at their teammate; Kenny looked like a solitary worm that had died on the pavement during a hot day. Ray shook his head as the boy began to stir. "Ming-Ming stopped singing!" he grumbled.

"Chief, you missed the show, Ming-Ming won!" Ray praised.

"My darling Ming-Ming won? That's wonderful news!" Kenny jumped up immediately, gripping his face with his palms and falling over backwards in excitement. Eventually, the small boy managed to balance himself and climbed up onto one of the arenas old flimsy fold down chairs. He had one foot rested on the chair in front, much to the annoyance of the person sat there, "I KNEW YOU COULD DO IT MING-MING!" he called down into the stadium, arms open wide as if wanting Ming-Ming to fly up into the crowd and greet him with a celebratory hug. This stance didn't last long though; both Ray and Kai grasped Kenny's shoulders and pulled him back down to earth.

Ray was laughing, "aren't you meant to be, y'know, collecting data Chief?" Kenny looked up at them both, blinking innocently as Ray's eyes traveled over to Kenny's neglected laptop that was still exactly where he had dropped it, perched upside down with a slight dent in the side.

"Oh man…." Kenny moaned, the realization dawning on his face, "Dizzi is going to kill me," he picked up the laptop and started examining it, opening the lid tentatively.

"If you think I'm collecting any data for you, you've got another thing coming!" the laptop said, and with that the screen went blank.

"Dizzi… Dizzi!" Kenny panicked, pressing the on-off button vigorously. "Oh man, what have I done?"

"Let the team down." Kai stated. Oh how he had yearned to say that for the past fifteen minutes.

"That's a bit harsh Kai!" said Ray shooting him a warning stare. Kai looked at him indifferently, he knew it had been harsh, that's why he had said it. They two boys stared each other down, until suddenly, two hands grabbed each of them by the shoulders.

"What are you two arguing about!" it was Max, closely followed by Tyson, Daichi and Hilary. Hilary was clutching a tray of food and Tyson was already tucking into his second burger of the day, or maybe it was his third, Kai had given up on counting. Ray explained their current conundrum to the rest of the team as Kai flinched away from Max's unwelcome hand.

"Aw no sweat! That's alright Kenny, we'll just have to use our brains for once eh!" said Tyson, nudging Max in the stomach. Max chuckled and took a bite of his burger, sitting himself down in the seat on the right side of Ray.

"Your brain is something we definitely don't need, Tyson," said Kai accepting a burger and fries from Hilary; it seemed he was going to be living off junk food for this entire tournament.

"Oh man, what a grouch! YOU NEED MY BRAIN BECAUSE I'M THE CHAMPION!" Tyson reminded him. Kai rolled his eyes in derision and began to eat.

"OKKK THEN!" Once again, Jazzman was rising in his announcement box, "IT LOOKS LIKE EVERYONE HERE IS READY TO GO, TODAYS SECOND MATCH, GARLAND OF THE JUSTICE 5 VERSUS ISSAK OF TEAM DULITY!"

Kai stared down at the arena floor and watched as the imposing leather cladded boy slouched up the stairs to the dish with his head bowed. "Wow, he looks like he takes himself way too seriously," Max chuckled as Tyson and Ray laughed. Garland on the other hand was already stood at the edge looking proud as ever. _Of course-_ Kai thought _, of course they would keep Brooklyn until last._

Garland was staring the newcomer down and Issak was staring at his launcher until, "3-2-1 LET IT RIP!" The two blades flew into the dish with extreme force. Within minutes, Garland was up to his old kickboxing tricks and his blade began to mimic his actions. Issak on the other hand was attacking like a bull that had seen a red; his style appeared to be quite brutal, powerful even, but also seemed to lacked control. Kai wondered if it would be enough to beat Garland.

"Woah, he's really standing his ground against Garland!" said Tyson, bouncing in his seat excitedly.

Fifteen minutes had passed and neither blade was letting up. Issak had seemed quite reserved before the match, but he was beginning to lash out with attacks of incredible force that could be felt all the way from the top balcony of the stadium. The Bladebreakers were in their element, if blading was their first favourite thing, then watching a really good match had to be their second, or then again, thought Kai, maybe in Tysons case it was food.

"AW MAN I REALLY WANNA FACE THIS ISSAK GUY!" Tyson shouted impatiently with his mouth full of burger.

"I have to admit, I'd be intrigued to find out how a match between myself and him would pan out- WOAH! Look at that attack!" Ray jumped, pointing at the dish, as if he needed to.

"Garland's struggling." Kai stated, and he wasn't wrong; the sportsman was breathing heavily, no longer his normal tall self, leaning slightly to one side in an attempt to keep himself upright. Issak must have noticed as he chose this moment to bring out his final attack, finally calling upon his bitbeast with an earth-shattering roar, "VUCUB-CAQUIX!" Garlands blade was knocked directly out of the dish, right past his face as he stared in absolute shock at his defeat.

Kai was impressed; after all, a newcomer had come along and defeated Garland. He quickly scanned the stands in an attempt to locate Tala. Everywhere he looked there were faces of shock and bewilderment in the crowd, no one had expected Garland to be defeated in the first match. Out of the corner of his eye, Kai spotted a flash of red hair before it quickly disappeared down one of the hallways leading back into the auditorium. Kai sighed and glanced sideways, Tyson, Ray, Max and Kenny were all exchanging pained expressions and Hilary looked speechless.

"Well that was…" Max began.

"Unexpected…" finished Tyson.

Kai noted how they all looked very disappointed; he assumed they had all been expecting Garland to win, and that they could then go and congratulate him after the match and have a good old _super-fun_ celebration involving group hugs and other such stupid things. Kai spent a few moments thinking about how annoying his team were until he noticed that Brooklyn was making his way up to the dish. The Bladebreakers watched as he patted Garland on the shoulder in what Kai thought looked like the most patronizing way to comfort a human on earth.

Normally, there was at least a five-minute break between each session but Brooklyn was already pulling his blade and launcher from his pocket. "Hey, Brooklyn, good to see you're eager but you do know you've got a ten minute break right?" Jazzman grinned.

"I'd rather get this over and done with, then I can go for a nap." Brooklyn's voice drawled through the crowd, as if the last place he wanted to be was there.

"Fine by me." the lilac-haired girl emerged from the bench shelter, clutching her blade and fixing it onto the launcher as she walked swiftly up the stairs to the dish.

"That's Isobella!" shouted Max excitedly as he pointed down into the center of the arena. "Y'know, the girl I met yesterday?" He looked around at everyone's uninterested expression and frowned, "isn't she pretty? She said I could call her Issy!" Everyone knew Max was a bit of a flirt, whenever he saw a pretty girl he just couldn't resist talking to them, and Kai was 99.9% sure he was already making a mental note to go and speak to her after the battle.

"Someone's in lurveee!" Tyson jibed, poking Max in the cheek as Ray and Hilary chuckled. Kai raised an annoyed eyebrow at his teammates.

"Maybe I am!" Max mused blissfully, "look at her long, flowing hair, it's so silky!" he added in a dreamy voice.

"Hnn." Kai growled, surely they should be concentrating on the match and not on the prettiness of one of the bladers, "I don't think anyone here gives a shit how pretty she is apart from you Ma-."

Tyson cut across him, "I dunno man, she's all right I guess," he was squinting his eyes to get a better look.

"Very petite." Ray observed.

"She doesn't quite match up to my Ming-Ming but I mean, I wouldn't say no…" Kenny giggled.

There was a long pause in which Tyson, Max, Ray and Kenny all slowly turned to towards Hilary whose face was red with anger. "Have you quite finished?" she asked in a voice that sounded dangerously calm.

"Uhhh…" Tyson gurgled before she reached out and slapped all four of them across the face.

"PAY ATTENTION!" she yelled, "especially you, Tyson!"

Kai folded his arms and smirked.

"Wh-WHY ME?" Tyson asked incredulously.

"BECAUSE!" Hilary shouted back at him as if that was a legitimate reason.

"They're starting." Kai interjected; Tyson and Hilary stifled their squabbling, but not before Tyson had turned to Max and jabbed him in the rib with his elbow and whispered _'your fault'_.

The two opponents in the arena were now facing each other, launchers raised and ready to pull the trigger. "IT LOOKS LIKE OUR TWO OPPONENTS ARE READY FOR THE DECIDING MATCH, BROOKLYN OF THE JUSTICE 5 VERSUS ISOBELLA OF DUALITY!" The crowd cheered, "THREE-TWO-ONE LET IT RIP!" the two blades launched, meeting before they had even hit the dish. A wave of pressure passed over them and all six of them leaned forward in their seats intently. Kai noticed that despite the first powerful hit, Brooklyn was looking somewhat disinterested; as always he was full of his own ego and not taking the battle seriously. Kai wondered if his battles with him and Tyson had taught Brooklyn nothing.

"You know, you may as well give up, your friend may have beaten Garland but you're no match for me!" Brooklyn shouted.

Isobella appeared not to acknowledge his comment but Kai noticed a small sarcastic smile flicker across her face as her blade picked up speed.

"Woah, her blade is fast!" Ray said in astonishment. Everyone knew that Ray was the fastest blader in the team, after all, he was a White Tiger, and so this must have been some speed to impress him. The blades crashed together again, leaving behind a large dent in the dish as the crowd cheered even more loudly. Kai was surprised at how well Isobella seemed to be holding her ground.

"You seem to be asking for it!" Brooklyn sneered, "I guess its all over for you…" he began to raise his hand and Kai knew exactly what was coming next, "KING OF DARKNESS ATTACK!" A black and purple mist erupted from Brooklyn's blade and began to swirl out into the air. The entire crowd held their breath as it began to engulf Isobella's blade and the silhouette of a terrifying beast could be seen emerging from the darkness. Kai couldn't help but notice that instead of looking scared, Isobella looked somewhat amused. Surely she didn't have anything up her sleeve that could get herself out of this predicament? She simply stood there, face unwavering, Kai leaned forwards and observed her blade, it didn't falter.

"Is that… it?" she questioned lightly. "Is that.. the best you've got?" Brooklyn was staring at her with his face covered in shock. Isobella smirked, "I'm not impressed," The tone in which she said it reminded Kai instantly of the first time he had faced Brooklyn, the time when Kai had thrown everything he had at the guy and Brooklyn simply turned around and laughed in his face. He felt a flame of anger ignite in his chest.

"Wh-what?" Brooklyn stuttered as his attack started to fade away.

She grinned, "I hope you don't mind if I kick it up a notch." Smoke began to emit from her beyblade, as Brooklyn looked on with a horrified expression on his face. The plume was gathering speed as it swirled around the dish, engulfing both bladers. Now only two purple and white lights that were being emitted by the beyblades bitchips could be seen through the smoke and they were crashing together with alarming force. Still, her attack was getting faster and soon Brooklyn was starting to panic.

"Ohh boy.." Tyson sighed, Kai momentarily pulled his eyes away, thinking that Tyson might have something important to say, only to watch his teammate cross his legs, fold his arms and close his eyes as if he were meditating. Hilary also turned to look at Tyson, trying to figure out why he was assuming such a clam and reserved sitting position whilst such an intense battle was occurring.

"Err Tyson, what are you doing?" she asked with the side of her mouth open in unison with the eyebrow above it.

"Oh nothing, I'm just preparing to get sucked into an alternate dimension of darkness." Tyson replied cheerily.

Kai smirked; well he had that one right, he thought, although before they could be pulled into Brooklyn's third dimension of darkness, they heard strangled screaming from the arena floor. Kai quickly returned his gaze to the dish only to find that he could no longer see it. "KING OF DARKNESS!" Brooklyn cried out over and over again.

"Isn't that a bit of a pretentious name for an attack?" Isobella was shouting back at him.

"EAHHH, ATTACK!"

"How is she doing this?" Ray gasped.

Kai had no idea how she was doing it. He couldn't believe it, he himself had found defeating Brooklyn so difficult and she didn't seem to be batting an eyelid.

The smoke was now starting to circle the stands and then the fire alarm kicked into action, blaring its loud siren around the entire complex. The crowd started to panic and retreat from the stands and Ray grabbed the back of Max and Daichi's jackets, "we better go!" they leap over their seats, "come on Tyson, Kai…" but Kai and Tyson were both rooted to the spot, staring down at the dish with complete fascination and disregard for their own safety.

"How is this happening?" Tyson whined.

"This is insane," Kai agreed.

"It doesn't matter how or why, we've just got to get out of here!" Hilary said impatiently grabbing them both by the arm, trying to pull them away.

"Its not an actual fire, its fine!" Tyson coughed through the smoke. Hilary grabbed the back of Tyson's jacket and pulled. "Awww, but Hilary I wanna see who wins!"

Kai reluctantly turned away from the battle, not that he could even see it due all the smoke. "I think… she might actually win." Kai wasn't quite sure how he knew, but his instincts were telling him so. A few seconds later, a small object which looked decidedly like a blade flew past them with extreme force, lodging itself into a concrete wall. Kai ran forward to assess the damage; it was battered and burnt to a crisp but there was no mistaking the bitchip, which was still lodged in the middle. "Zeus.." he said, staring at it, "Brooklyn lost…?"

The smoke began to fade.

"AND… THE WINNER... UM WELL.." said Jazzman looking around attempting to identity the charred blade.

"IT'S ZEUS!" Tyson shouted at the announcer who stuck his thumb up in thanks.

"IN A SHOCK MOVE BY THE NEWCOMERS, THE WINNER IS TEAM DUALITY!" Jazzman coughed into the microphone. The smoke was now starting to clear so that they could all see the outline of Brooklyn, he was kneeling on the floor, head bowed, quite emotionless, and opposite, Isobella standing perhaps slightly more triumphantly that she had before as she watched her own blade spin in the center of the dish.

The crowd let out a confused yelp.

"WHAT A BATTLE, IT SEEMS WE HAVE A NEW TEAM TO BEAT!" Jazzman shouted excitedly, "what a surprise for the Justice 5, better luck next time eh guys!" he stuck both thumbs in the air, smiling cheesily.

"Well, I guess this changes the game a little bit," Hilary mused as the other five stood there in shock.

"A LITTLE BIT?" Tyson shouted at her.

"Yeah, a little bit." Kai agreed, staring at Brooklyn's charred blade.

* * *

 _Ok so Isobella is totally a Mary Sue but hey, what's the point of a tournament fic if there isn't a new fangled all-mighty team to go up against? Plus it will all make sense in the end!_

 _I really hope you all enjoyed this chapter, it was a bit long but I tried to make it shorter and it just didn't work, let me know what you think :)_

 _The next chapter is going to be…. Dramatic... poor poor Kai!_


	9. Brooklyn's Wrath

_Yay new chapter, I really hope you enjoy this one, I had a lot of fun writing it (tormenting Kai is one of my favourite pastimes). Thank you again to Cuteyhil, Desires of Autumn Leaves and wingsofpegesus for your reviews!_

 _EDIT: Ok, rewrote the chapter! Finally! Excited to get the next chapter live soon!_

* * *

 ** _CHAPTER 9 - DAY 3_**

BROOKLYN'S WRATH

As the stands cleared, Tyson had made it clear to the rest of the team that it was his duty as world champion that he must go and check on Justice 5 and make sure that they were ok. Kai thought this was a stupid idea, however, somehow he found himself being roped into going by his own curiosity getting the better of him.

They were now walking down the corridor that housed all of the team rooms and Kai was strongly resisting the urge to grab Tyson and Daichi, march them over to their very own room, and lock them inside. He watched irritatedly as the terrible duo ran down the long corridor from door to door, opening each one silently with great care, peering through the gap, and then slamming them closed with a loud racket upon realising it wasn't the room they were looking for.

Kai wondered if his presence, considering that he himself had been the first person to ever beat Brooklyn, would anger the red-haired blader. Kai chuckled silently; after all, he wasn't entirely sure if it was a good idea to show his face in front of Brooklyn, but he was going to anyway, just to be an ass.

Finally, they found the room. The door looked as if it had been on the receiving end of a vicious attack, it hung limply from its frame and there was a huge splintered hole through the wood.

"Uhhh…." Tyson said as they all stared, deliberating over whether or not to go in. Kai was quite sure turning back now would be the most prudent option.

"Come on Tyson, it wont be that bad." said Max. Tyson knocked warily; the room seemed silent but then they heard footsteps and Garland appeared through the gap.

"Oh," He said with his head bowed, "its you guys." Garland lifted back the splintered wood so they could make their way safely inside.

"We just wanted to come see, how you were…" Ray's voice trailed off as he stared around the room. Crusher was sat on the sofa next to his sister whom he had his arm around; they both had downtrodden looks on their faces but greeted them as they entered. Ming-Ming was sat in a chair with her head on a table, can of cola in her hand. Garland had gone to sit on the arm on the sofa; he wore a frustrated expression on his face.

Kai's eyes were immediately drawn to a crumpled up red haired boy, who was hugging his knees in the corner of the room, stuck between two lockers. Kai rolled his eyes, if he had to rate everyone that he knew on a chart of one to ten for childishness, he was sure Brooklyn would be an eleven, or maybe Tyson, _then again maybe Daichi_ he pondered, thinking this would be a fun subject to really have a good muse over whilst he had some spare time.

They all pulled up chairs and began to discuss the match while Kai's eyes lingered on the shadow crouching pathetically in the corner. After a while, the conversation moved onto their lives outside of beyblading. Kai, not wanting to discuss his home life, decided it would be best to remove himself from the conversation, so he stood up and took refuge in the corner of the room, glancing over again at Brooklyn as he went. He wasn't sure why Brooklyn's pathetic appearance gave him a slight jilt of elation.

He folded his arms and leant against the nearest wall, thinking about the previous match. How had that girl done it? He traipsed through his brain for answers, but none came. Instead, it simply made him wonder if his own win against Brooklyn wasn't as significant as he first thought. Kai did not like that idea.

In defeating Brooklyn, Isobella had subsequently knocked not only Brooklyn but also Kai down on his imaginary leaderboard. He inhaled sharply, he really didn't like that idea. Was she another person to add to his list of those he must defeat to get to the top?

Kai was so lost in thought he barely knew what was going on around him, that was until a pained voice shouted, "What is HE doing here?" Kai looked up to see everyone else's eyes flickering between himself and Brooklyn. The crumpled blader had finally realised he had visitors, and was pointing directly up at Kai from the floor.

"Well," Kai paused, "I mean... I'm definitely not here to congratulate you." Kai smirked sarcastically, averting his eyes. This was exactly what he expected his first meeting with Brooklyn would be like.

"ARE YOU HERE TO MOCK ME?" Brooklyn shouted, jumping up and making both lockers rattle around noisily in the process. Kai rolled his eyes and feigned ignorance but Brooklyn lunged across the room towards him with a totally deranged look upon his face. Kai quickly swerved out of the way as Garland grabbed Brooklyn by the upper arm and insisted he calm down.

"Brooklyn's had a difficult year," he explained, holding onto the red-haired boy with both hands as he thrashed around.

A cheery voice traveled over the commotion, "Brooklyn doesn't like loosing." It was Mystel; he had just sprung into the room through the broken door like a cat.

"We know." The Bladebreakers responded in unison.

"Since you beat me, everyone beats me" Brooklyn mumbled in a voice that was so quiet it was scary. "ITS ALL YOUR FAULT!" he yelled.

"Sounds like you lost your confidence." Kai smirked. He knew he shouldn't antagonise him, but it was just too tempting not to.

Completely outraged, Brooklyn uttered the only words he seemed to be able to muster. "HOW DARE YOU!"

Kai laughed. "Yeah, hah. You know its true."

"Kai!" Tyson protested, "He just lost a match, give the guy some credit!"

"Yeah Kai, aren't you being a bit harsh?" Max added. Kai responded with a look of derision.

"Whatev-" but before he could finish, Brooklyn broke free from Garlands grip and lunged forwards again. Kai let out a gruff noise as his head connected sharply with the wall behind him, he could see out of the corner of his eye that Brooklyn was moving in for another attack and his reflexes kicked in, instantly reaching out and grabbing the redheads neck.

Brooklyn squealed as Kai one-handedly lifted him off the floor and slammed him into the wall that he had just been leaning against only moments ago. Kai could hear the room's occupants gasping loudly behind him. "Don't bother!" he spat angrily into Brooklyn's face, after all, his head really hurt.

Brooklyn stared down at him and his face turned from fear to a malicious grin, "heh heh heh, you wouldn't be able to beat her either, you're just like me." He snarled. Kai frowned asaA flutter of fear spread across his chest. Brooklyn must have known that comment would be enough to enrage him, and that was probably why he said it, but Kai didn't care, Brooklyn was asking for it.

Tyson must have noticed because he tried to intervene, "Kai he's not worth-" he began, but it was too late; in a split second Kai had thrown Brooklyn across the room, onto a pile of stacked chairs. It looked incredibly painful and for a few seconds, Brooklyn hung there limply in a position that simply wasn't natural.

Garland rushed forwards, "Brooklyn?" but Brooklyn was up and was already pushing past his teammate, making another beeline directly for Kai. He swung and Kai ducked, swerving back around to punch Brooklyn square in the jaw. Brooklyn staggered and leant on the nearest table and began to chuckle.

"That wasn't very good, Kai, I still have all my teeth." He giggled patronisingly as he tapped the side of his jaw lightly, "you would think your time at the Abbey would have taught you how to fight a loser like me!" he laughed through a mouthful of blood.

Kai froze. "What?"

"Oh yeah, Boris told me all about it! Your time at the Abbey, your so called _terrible past_." Kai felt as if someone had frozen him in time and all he could do was listen to what Brooklyn was saying. "The way you strut around here as if you own the place-"

"Shut up." He whispered. He could feel the eyes of the entire room bearing into him.

"But you always look so sorry for yourself, tell me Kai, why is that?" He stood there motionlessly, not sure how to make his feet move. "I guess its probably because you had such a terrible upbringing, I mean, your parents are dead," Brooklyn continued.

"They're not dead!" he snapped back in a daze, desperately wishing that Brooklyn would stop talking.

"That's not what your Grandfather told me," Brooklyn laughed. "Well, I mean, I feel so sorry for you Kai. Oh wait, I forgot, you're actually a spoilt rich boy." Kai stared at him, eyes like dinner plates. What had his Grandfather told him? Did everyone on the Justice 5 team know what happened at the Abbey? Did they know details about him that maybe even he didn't know? Kai was starting to panic, his eyes darted around the room, looking for an exit. "Do give Voltaire my regards when you see him, after all, he did say he wished I was his grandson instead of you."

For one long moment, Kai wanted to kill him. He wanted to tear every single limb from Brooklyn's body with his own hands and throw the good for nothing smarmy git off a cliff.

Kai took one step forward but suddenly Tyson was in front of him, facing Brooklyn with an arm thrown out to hold him back, "he's not worth it." Tyson repeated again.

Kai's eyes traveled in a daze to stare at his teammates face, Tyson was wearing a cold, hard expression and Kai knew what it meant. Normally he wouldn't take a lifeline from Tyson, but this time he knew he had to; he had to stop himself from doing something very, very stupid. He seethed with anger for a few more seconds, staring over Tyson's shoulder at Brooklyn's face, which, although bruised and bleeding, was contorted with laughter. A few more seconds elapsed before he turned and bolted towards the door, almost tripping over his own feet as he went. He slammed it shut so forcefully that the already broken wooden frame fell into pieces behind him.

"Hey Kai!" called Max, his blonde hair poking out of the doorframe as if he were about to follow.

"Leave him, Max." he heard Hilary say dismissively. He was grateful; he didn't want anyone coming after him. He stormed off down the hall wishing that he had just gone back to the hotel in the first place, that he had followed his instincts instead of his ridiculous sense of curiosity. He wished he had just kept his stupid mouth shut.

Kai crashed through the hallway making no effort to keep quiet as he wondered painfully about what he had just heard. Had his grandfather really said that? Did he really wish that Brooklyn was his grandson instead of Kai? Kai sighed, pausing for a moment next to a bin. The worst part was that it wouldn't even surprise Kai if his Grandfather had said it. Not that, that made it any less painful. He kicked a bin harshly, immediately regretting it as pain seared through his foot. He swore loudly and carried on down the corridor to the main entrance.

He rushed over to the exit, pressing his hand onto the glass door. There was a large crowd gathered outside, Kai told himself they were probably just beyblade fans that were still here from the earlier matches. He looked up to make sure there was nothing in his way as he stepped over the threshold, someone shouted and as the door swung closed behind him, Kai was blinded by hundreds of flashing lights. He growled, now was not the time that he wanted to be mobbed by crazy beyblade fans. But something about them quickly told Kai that they were different. He stared at the flashing lights, quickly they people he was being mobbed by were all holding large professional cameras, and the people attached to them were also holding microphones.

"MR HIWATARI!" A greedy looking middle-aged man in a green tweed suit ran forwards, brandishing a microphone, "what are your thoughts on your Grandfathers arrest?"

A stout looking woman whose hair was pulled up into a tight bun elbowed the man in the tweed suit out of the way as she rushed forwards, "does your Grandfathers arrest have any connection to the arson at Balkov Abbey?" she pried.

"Did you get that gash on your head during a battle?" A tall man at the back of the crowd shouted over all of them.

Kai froze. There was a swoon of interest as they all began to excitedly photograph the cut on his head; Kai hadn't even realised it was there. He stared around, looking for an exit but there were reporters and flashing lights everywhere. "Hnnnn." He growled, putting his head down as he tried to force his way into the crowd. They were beginning to ask more and more invasive questions.

"Is it true that your Grandfather was running a terrorist organisation?"

"Were you once apart of BioVolt?"

Kai wanted, no, Kai needed to get away; he stared desperately over the crowd towards the taxi rank. There was only one taxi waiting and he hurried over to it, knocking people out of the way angrily as he went. Before he could open the door of the car, reporters had pinned him to the left rear wing so that he couldn't get away. The taxi driver rolled down the window, "mate this taxi is taken," he explained with a look of pity on his face, then turning towards the reporters, "excuse me, you're in the way!" he said, obviously annoyed as more and more reporters began to engulf the car.

"We heard you grew up at Balkov Abbey, what was that like?" the woman with the bun asked, thrusting her voice recorder up into his face. Kai pushed her away, staring longingly at the car; he would have willingly climbed into the boot at this point. There were so many people and he couldn't move an inch. Kai was starting to panic; everywhere he looked there was a reporter, there were no longer any gaps in the crowd for him to escape to. For one small moment, he considered launching Dranzer at them, knowing full well that a BitBeasts power should not be used on humans. After all what else could he do? It would only be self defence, Kai told himself, and he wouldn't attack them, no matter how much he wanted to. Kai reached awkwardly into his pocket for his launcher.

The taxi door swung open forcefully, knocking Kai forwards and pushing aside five photographers who had been gathered behind it. Kai stared momentarily at the empty seat in front of him. Then, a small hand reached out and grabbed his wrist, pulling him onto the back seat. Kai didn't resist and followed the hand without hesitation, slamming the door quickly behind him, as he tried to control his incoherent breathing.

"Go." A small, soft voice spoke to the driver.

"Right you are, Miss!" The driver replied cheerfully, pipping his horn in a passive aggressive way at the crowd of people.

Kai stared at his knees, wondering who it was that had saved him, who had seen him panic, who had took pity.

He looked up and felt a short stab of surprise, followed by a small groan as he saw Isobella staring straight back at him.


	10. Blade with me

**_Hi guys! Its been a few months, sorry about that, I've been so busy with yknow, life (sigh)! Finally back with the next chapter, yay! Really hope you like this one!_**

 ** _Thank you so much to Cutetyhil, BobzDillans, Desire of Autumn Leaves and wingsofpegesus (and of course the guests) for the reviews, they really mean a lot! The fact some of you said its like reading a new season of beyblade honestly made me so so happy! Also thanks so much to the new favs and follows, hope you will continue to enjoy the story!_**

* * *

 ** _CHAPTER 10 – Blade with me._**

 ** _DAY 3_**

Kai sat there stiffly as the taxi slowly pulled away; nudging the reporters back onto the pavement. They were still desperately trying to snap a few photos of him through the windshield. Kai glared at them as the car finally broke free from the pack and began to speed down the road. He sat there grinding his hands together, thinking about how crap his day had been so far and about how he was becoming acutely aware that he had a very sharp headache. He ignored it and quickly turned his attention to Isobella.

She was sat there silently, one leg crossed over the other, arms folded as she gazed out of the window. Kai stared at her across the leather seats. He hadn't expected that the hand that had rescued him would belong to her; in fact, she was the last person he had imagined that would be waiting for him on the backseat. He wondered why she would do such a thing. _Must pity me,_ he thought bitterly, recalling how blatantly worked up he had become over a small group of measly reporters.

He tried to read the expression on her face, but it was blank, although the more he stared, the more he began to see how tired she looked. She was slumped slightly in her seat and her head was resting on the car window. Thinking about it, she looked exhausted. He watched as her eyes slowly fluttered shut. It hadn't seemed like it at the time, but maybe the battle with Brooklyn had really taken it out of her after all.

Suddenly, her eyes snapped open and Kai realised that he had been staring for longer than was polite.

"What?" she asked. Kai wasn't sure how to respond so he decided that the best thing to do was to stare at the headrest in front of him and remain silent. "You know," she continued, "it's polite to say thank you when someone saves you from a stampede of angry reporters."

Kai continued to stare at the headrest, he wasn't sure if he'd ever said thank you for anything. "Hn.. Thanks." he muttered.

"That's better." It didn't sound like she thought it was better. "Also, uhh.." Kai noticed her pointing loosely at him and turned towards her with a glare, "you're bleeding"

"Wha-" he brought his hand up to the source of the pain in his temple and pressed it, only to find what felt like a sticky cut. "Ugh," he groaned, no wonder he had a headache.

"You know, you could sue them for that," Isobella chuckled, waving a crisp white cotton handkerchief in front of him. Kai stared at it blankly, taking longer than was humanly acceptable to realise that she was offering it to him. He hesitated for a few moments longer until Isobella had begun to raise an eyebrow, at which point he reached forwards and grabbed it.

"Wasn't the reporters." He mumbled, remembering with acute detail the moment when Brooklyn had slammed his head sideways into a wall.

"Oh I see," she replied in an uninterested voice, followed by a strained silence, "you know, when someone offers you a handkerchief, you're supposed to say thank you." Isobella continued with an air of sarcasm.

Boy, this girl sure liked her manners. "Whatever." he said grumpily, staring at the now bloodied handkerchief.

"Well, I guess you can keep it." She shrugged.

"Thanks." He mumbled again, pocketing the handkerchief.

For the next ten minutes they both sat in silence, not helped by the taxi driver; who kept trying to make small talk. So far, he had asked them both about how their days were going and about their reasons for visiting London. When all topics had been exhausted, the driver had even tried to discuss the weather. Kai found it unnecessary and irritating and was trying his hardest to zone out. Annoyingly, Isobella was humouring the man with one-word answers.

"Traffics really bad today!" he piped up again in a strong cockney accent, head turned slightly so that the passengers in the back could hear.

"Just drive." Kai growled.

"Not talkative eh, well each to their own!" said the cheery taxi driver as he finally gave up.

They drove silently for another ten minutes as they wound their way back into central London. Kai began to think about Isobella and Brooklyn's match, he wondered how Isobella had managed to stop Brooklyn's attack with such ease, when the same task had nearly taken Kai's own life. He glanced sideways; the girl was still staring out of the window. Kai struggled internally, should he ask? Throw away his pride and ask how she had managed it? Or should he try to appear as if he didn't care and simply figure it out on his own? No. Staying silent meant he wouldn't improve, he just had to ask. If only he could figure out the right way to go about it.

Kai couldn't remember the last time he had initiated a conversation, especially with someone he knew nothing about. At least with the Bladebreakers and The Blitzkrieg Boys there was no awkwardness, they all knew he was a bit of a git. Kai mused for a few moments, how would Tyson approach this situation?

Immediately an image swam to mind of Tyson, bouncing up and down in his seat as he asked increasingly more and more invasive questions. Kai shuddered, no way; he'd rather eat his own socks. He sighed, realising that there was only one thing to do.

"Hn…"

Her eyes swivelled away from the glass and she glanced at him before quickly turning back.

Kai frowned; maybe the classic 'hn.' wasn't enough. He mentally twiddled his thumbs whilst tracing his finger over the fabric seam of the armrest. Looking up at her every few seconds. She slowly turned to look at him again with her face contorted into a frown. "What do you want?" she asked, clearly annoyed.

 _Ha!_ Kai thought triumphantly, "Well, seeing as you asked," he smirked, folding his arms. "How'd you beat Brooklyn?"

Isobella frowned even more, "I don't think that's any of your business." She replied sounding even more annoyed than before.

"Hn.." he mocked, "I'll assume it was just a fluke then," he said, keeping his voice incredibly snide, hoping it might provoke her to reveal something.

There was silence, and then, to Kai's surprise, Isobella gave a small chuckle. He snapped his head back to face her, she was grinning at with her eyebrows raised. Was she laughing at him?

"Is that supposed to make me angry? How immature," she scoffed.

Kai stared at her as she continued to chuckle at him. He had never been called immature in his entire life! Well actually, that was a lie, he had heard it from his grandfather plenty of times, but that didn't count (or at least that's what he kept trying to tell himself).

"Hn.." he growled, lowering his eyebrows, quite annoyed by her reply.

"Stop saying _Hn_."

"Hn."

"I should have let the reporters eat you for dinner," she muttered.

"You're welcome to get out," He replied pleasantly.

"It's my taxi," She responded sweetly.

"Hnn.."

Kai caught a glimpse of Isobella rolling her eyes, "stop it," she said flatly.

"Stop what?"

"Saying _hnn_ , it's not even a word."

"So?" he smirked.

"So? So you sound like an aggregated moose." She glared at him and he glared back.

 _A moose!_ Thought Kai, completely outraged, who the hell did this girl think she was? _Hn_ , in Kai's opinion, was a wonderful word! Through it he could express his annoyance, anger, disappointment or frankly, any other emotion that came to mind without actually having to say anything. Thus making it the perfect word!

Kai hunched against the car door, pulling himself inwards and folding his arms. He turned his entire body away from the stupid girl. He heard her smirk; he hated to admit that he had absolutely no comeback whatsoever.

"I do not sound like a moose." He said quietly after a long thirty-second pause.

"Great come back." She mocked.

Kai was quite sure he could easily come to hate this girl.

He glared at her, preparing to say something that would put her in her place until suddenly he became very aware of his beyblade. In fact, Kai had become so angry that he hadn't noticed his pocket heating up like a quick boiling kettle, "argh!" he cried, it felt as if it someone had burnt him with a hot poker. He quickly reached into his pocket and pulled out his beyblade, holding it gingerly in his fingertips, it was still very warm. "What the hell?" he whispered agitatedly at Dranzers bit, very aware of the fact that Isobella was watching him with a look of amusement on her face.

"What?" he demanded.

She grinned, "nothing."

Kai shoved his blade back into his pocket, figuring that Dranzer was only trying to warn him against doing anything too stupid. "Hnn.." Kai quickly caught Isobella's eye. "Uhhh, fine, I'll stop hn-ing, but you have to tell me how you beat Brooklyn."

She smirked, "Seriously? Doesn't sound like a very good deal to me."

"Hn." he replied purposefully. She scowled at him.

"Why would I tell you how I beat Brooklyn?" she asked, starting to reel off a list, "you're a random blader that I know nothing about, we're on different teams and we're meant to be blading _against_ each other."

"Hn… " Kai couldn't deny that all of that was true and made complete sense, "… understandable," He nodded, thinking quickly. "So blade with me." He said simply. After all, he was feeling particularly reckless after his fight with Brooklyn, and what better way was there to find out about a new blader?

"And what would be the point of that?" she raised an eyebrow.

"Well then I wouldn't be random." He grinned. "Plus, lets face it, we're probably not going to get the chance to blade in a match," he paused, "we're in different blocks." Kai could almost see the cogs in her head working away, "the chances of you making it to the final are… slim," he added delicately, watching her to see how this statement would sink in.

Isobella choked somewhere between a laugh and a cough, "oh really?" she smirked. "So what, the fact you keep asking me how I beat Brooklyn has nothing to do with how worried you are about how my team might make it to the final?"

"Heh," he pondered, "I'm not really worried about your team." _just you_ , he thought, reliving in his mind the smoke that had engulfed the entire stadium and forced Brooklyn's blade out of the dish with alarming force.

"Well you should be, we're _going_ to make it to the final." She stated, "and we'll definitely beat you. That'll be your first and last time blading against me." She stated bluntly.

Just then, they pulled up outside the hotel. "Here we are!" said the driver. Isobella fumbled with some money, passing it to the driver as Kai glared at her. She opened the door and Kai quickly followed suit, intending to oppose her, but she had already rushed up stone steps and was disappearing behind the hotels main entrance.

Kai rushed after her, pushing the revolving door angrily out of the way, peering around the foyer as he went, but she was nowhere to be seen. How could she have just disappeared like that? Was she hiding from him? Kai wandered out onto the marble floor but paused as the newspaper stand caught his eye. Distracted, he wandered gingerly up to it, noticing all six papers had a very similar headline. He read each of them in turn; _BIOVOLT BURN DOWN,_ _BIOVOLT and HIWATARI_ , _NEW BioVolt Evidence comes to Light! HIWATARI ARRESTED- ACCOMPLICE MISSING, HIWATARI ARRESTED FOR TERROIST BIOVOLT PLOT._

Kai felt sick, all thoughts of Isobella wiped from his mind immediately. He picked up one of the papers, noticing a big photo of himself on the front, a photo of him struggling to get past the reporters he had met outside of the beystadium. _What the hell_ , thought Kai; that had only been less than an hour ago. Underneath the photo it read:

 _Mr. Hiwatari Jnr, currently in London participating in the World Beyblade Championship, refused to comment on his Grandfathers arrest. Kai Hiwatari, who is the currently heir to HIWATARI ENTERPRISES, is rumored_ _to have grown up at the BioVolt stronghold, Balkov Abbey. Little is known of his life there but there was an incident at a previous championship where little Kai changed sides and began working for the illegal corporation._

 _Damnit!_ He thought, snatching up each paper in turn, skimming them angrily. His fists were creasing the pages as he balled them up tighter and tighter. Finally, shaking, he ripped the last paper right down the middle and threw the entire pile onto the floor. "Fuck this." He muttered, stomping angrily away from them and up to the desk, drumming his fingers agitatedly on the glass top.

A kind looking woman in front of him put the phone down, "Mr. Hiwatari, how may I help you?" Kai didn't even bother to ask how she knew his name.

"Make sure no one finds out that I'm staying here!" he spat angrily. The woman looked slightly taken aback, but settled on a look of pity. _What,_ Kai thought, had she read the papers too?

"Of course Mr. Hiwatari. " she smiled.

Kai nodded and traipsed haughtily off towards the lift.


	11. Home Cooked Kenny Burgers

**I'm not sure if this chapter is even relevant, HOWEVER, I really wanted to write it as it contains so much fluffy friendship between Tyson and Kai, which is kinda adorable (I mean, I hope you think so too!) I just wanted to show how I think Kai and Tyson interact when they're together. They're best friends after all, not that Kai would want to admit that. Dawwww!**

 **Its only been a few days since I last updated but I'm trying to motivate myself to write the next few chapters, so pls do review!**

* * *

 ** _CHAPTER 11 - Home Cooked Kenny Burgers_**

 ** _DAY 4_**

 _Kai was very aware of the fact that, one; he was lying on the floor, two; someone- or something- was peering at him creepily whilst giving him the occasional kick and three; he couldn't get up._

 _He was lying on the floor in the Justice 5's dressing room. His body felt incredibly heavy, as if it were made of stone. Slowly, he managed to lift his head and caught a glimpse of his attacker. Oh, it was only Brooklyn- that was understandable. Wait, it wasn't Brooklyn; Kai stared disbelievingly towards the creature. It was Brooklyn's body, but where was the smarmy face that normally sat upon those haughty shoulders? It appeared to have been replaced by none other than his own Bit Beast, Dranzer._

 _"Whaa…." This was getting confusing._

 _"Hey Kai, you want a burger?" Thank god, it was Tyson- wow that was an unusual thought- Kai marveled. Tyson had a burger, which meant there was at least some sense of normality in the situation; maybe he could shed some light on why Brooklyn had acquired Dranzer's head._

 _"They're home cooked Kenny Burgers!" Tyson grinned; Kai gaped at him as a 'Kenny Burger' was pressed into his hand. The greaseproof paper wrapper read "KENNY BURGER" in big red letters._

 _"Tyson, what the hell is going on?" he asked, still stuck to the floor._

 _Something caught his eye, he stared past his teammate to the other side of the room where Kenny, in their own dressing room would normally be sat with his laptop, apart from Kenny looked very different, "why is there a moose sat at the table?" Kai asked cautiously. The giant moose was sitting upright, trying to type on a laptop with its large hooves._

 _"We thought Kenny was a bit useless so we decided to eat him, we got this moose as a replacement, but he hasn't learnt how to use the laptop yet." Tyson answered simply, taking a bite of his own burger._

 _"Right…" What a fat lot of use he was. Kai stared at the burger and grimaced, that was the last time he would ever accept food from Tyson._

 _Kai wasn't quite sure what to do; he was still being kicked by Brooklyn, and Tyson was doing absolutely nothing to help. Oddly enough, the kicking wasn't painful. But wait, he thought, craning his neck to take another look at Brooklyn, no, that couldn't be Brooklyn. Brooklyn was actually lying down over the other side of the room; Kai could see him reclining on one of the sofas._

 _"Ow!" a sharp pain filled the sides of his temple, he had tried to pull his head up too far and the creature beside him had punched him. Hang on a second, he squinted his eyes at the sofa- was that his Bit Beast? With Brooklyn's head? "WHAT THE HELL." He looked back at his attacker; Dranzer stared down her sharp beak at him. Then he looked over at the sofa, Brooklyn's head atop a glowing giant red bird._

 _Why had Brooklyn and Dranzer swapped heads, or bodies? This was way too weird._

 _The sofa dwelling Dranzer- or Brooklyn, whichever way there was to look at it- sat up, placing her feet onto the ground, Kai had never seen his Bit Beast exist in the real world outside of a beyblade match, it was really quite odd. Brooklyn's head wobbled and then his eyes snapped open._

 _"LOOK AT ME NOW KAI, I'M A DARK BIT BEAST, HA HA HA!" he shouted, voice booming._

 _"What NO!" Kai screamed rather more dramatically than he had intended, reaching his hand out towards what he thought was his Bit Beast._

 _"Eat your Kenny burger, Kai!" Tyson piped up cheerfully._

 _"Shut up Tyson!" he spat, throwing the burger back at the dark haired blader. The burger let out a small startled scream, it sounded a lot like Kenny. Kai pulled a face, since when do burgers scream? He didn't have much time to think about it as just then Brooklyn-Dranzer began to laugh dementedly. Trust Brooklyn to turn Kai's Bit Beast evil._

 _Suddenly, the room became very dark, had someone turned out the lights? He could hear the distant panicked grunting of the moose; did he really sound like that? "hn…" he grunted, trying to listen to his own voice, making a mental note to buy an audio recorder._

 _Kai had been so lost in thought that he barely realized he wasn't alone in the darkness; suddenly he looked up and realized he was face to face with something very familiar, "Dranzer…?" he asked the figure. No. Kai inhaled sharply, realizing it was Black Dranzer._

 _Well, he thought; that escalated quickly._

 _"I'm back, Kai," Black Dranzer whispered, his voice echoing around the room. His voice sounded suspiciously like the taxi drivers voice from the previous day. Kai had never imagined that Black Dranzer would have a cockney accent. If he hadn't of been absolutely terrified, he would have found it quite amusing._

 _"No way! I destroyed your bit after my Grandfather gave it to me!" Kai panicked._

 _"Phoenixes are always reborn…. From the ashes." Black Dranzer whispered menacingly._

 _"Hey Kai…." It was Tyson again._

 _"I DON'T WANT A KENNY BURGER!" he yelled, flailing his arms against the floor, trying to pull himself up, knowing he needed to get away from this entire situation, and fast._

 _"KAIIIII!"_

 _A new voice echoed from down the hall, it sounded so familiar, "come back to the Abbey young Kai…"_

 _"No!" he refused angrily, he was determined to get out of the room._

 _"KAIIIIIIIIIIIII!"_

 _"go AWAY!"_

BANG.

Kai jumped awake.

Light was pouring in through gaps in the silk curtains and he rolled over to stare at the ceiling. It had just been a dream; and he was quite annoyed that his subconscious hadn't realized that. Kai sighed and pulled the covers up over his head to block the light, and then it hit him. Everything from the previous day few days came flooding back. Maybe he would be better off in a world where Brooklyn's head was attached to everything he held dear and Kenny had been turned into a fast food delicacy after all.

A loud erratic banging noise sounded from the hallway, Kai peered one eye out from under the sheets. Getting out of bed at this early hour was not on today's agenda. He tried to stuff his pillow against both ears. The banging sounded again. He really didn't want to get out of bed. He had only been there for three nights but he had grown fond of this particular sleeping apparatus.

More banging.

He sighed again, knowing what had to be done. Whoever was waking him up this early in the morning was pure evil and Kai was going to let them know about it, albeit with slight reluctance. Growling, he slowly pulled back the sheets.

The door was getting louder, whoever it was, was very, very impatient. Kai swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood up, throwing on a fluffy robe and slippers. He stamped over to the bedroom door, there it was again, followed by a muffled, "KAI!" he growled at the sound, Kai knew that voice.

"KAI! KAAAAAI! OPEN THE DOOOR, DUDE!" it was Tyson.

Didn't that idiot realize that penthouse suites have doorbells?

He walked down the corridor at snail pace, grumbling like an old man who was about to go and shake a frying pan at the youths trespassing on his property. Kai wondered how long it would take for Tyson to give up and go away, maybe the entire team was out there, _erugh_ , he couldn't think of anything worse. Actually, why was Tyson even in the land of the living at this hour of the morning? Maybe something was up.

Kai unlocked the hinge and the door swung open with a thud against the doorstopper, he moved swiftly out of the way seeing that Tyson, eyes closed, was readying himself for his next attack on the paneled wood. He came flying into the hallway and landed spread eagled on the marble floor.

"YOU COULD HAVE SAID YOU WERE OPENING THE DOOR!" Tyson spluttered, face glued to the marble. He pushed himself up and assumed a stance, which resembled that of a crab. Kai looked out into the hallway and sighed with relief, it was just Tyson, that, he could deal with.

He slammed the door shut and turned to face his teammate who looked absolutely full of anticipation. "DUDE. YOU TOLD US TO GET UP AT 8AM!" Tyson shouted furiously. "YOU KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS? IT'S TWELVE, KAI! TWELVE!" Kai looked at him and frowned, was this one of Tyson's stupid jokes? Trust him to come up with some elaborate prank to freak him out.

"Is this one of your dumb jokes?" he asked moodily.

"UHHHHH," Tyson thrust his watch into Kai's face, 12:07 it read. _Crap._ Kai shot a warning stare at the smaller blader; if this really was a joke he was going to lock Tyson up in the penthouse panic room for punishment. Kai rushed into his bedroom and grabbed the digital clock; it too read 12:07. He stared at it in disbelief, slightly annoyed that he wouldn't be forcing Tyson into the metal container anytime soon.

"I never oversleep…" he muttered, he had never woken up this late before and felt thoroughly stupid for doing so, not that he wanted Tyson to see that. Kai inhaled deeply and marched straight back out into the hallway. "Whatever Tyson, I overslept. You oversleep every single day of your pathetic life so I don't see as you have any right to complain." Yes, that was a good response he thought, assuming his usual posture of indifference.

Tyson let out a frustrated noise; "WE'VE BEEN WAITING FOR YOU IN THE TRAINING ROOM FOR FOUR HOURS!" Kai felt a pang of guilt, had they really been waiting for him since eight in the morning?

"I'm sure you managed to get on fine without me!" He spat, sweeping past Tyson, indicating that the blue haired boy should follow him, "I need to get ready so just, I dunno, watch TV or something." he led him into the sitting room.

They had been in London for three days yet Kai hadn't spent so much as an inkling of time in any of the rooms of his penthouse suite aside from the master bedroom. Now that he was in the sitting room, he wasn't quite sure where to place himself. There were three lavish cream coloured sofas, two of them were facing each other and the other was pointing towards a huge flat screen tv which was mounted on the wall above a marble fireplace. The curtains draped around windows looked as if they were made from the finest silk and a magnificent chandelier finished the room, hanging dauntingly above the sofa arrangement.

"Get on fine without you? Dude, we need you! Woah…." Said Tyson in astonishment as he passed under the doorframe, "Look at that chandelier, look at this room! This is insane! DO YOU SEE THAT CHANDELIER KAI?" Tyson ran past him; leap frogging over the back of the nearest sofa and grabbing the remote control.

"Hn..," he muttered, awkwardly shuffling backwards towards the door, "give me uhh.. Ten minutes," He turned on his heel and rushed back towards the bedroom.

"I'M SO ORDERING ROOM SERVICE!" he heard Tyson shout as the TV swung into action. _Jesus no_ , Kai thought as images of Tyson surrounded by multiple fifty-inch pizzas floated around in his mind. He ran over to the phone on his bedside table and took the receiver off the hook. Kai grinned at his genius quick thinking and then rushed into the bathroom.

Ten minutes later Kai emerged from the shower feeling slightly more refreshed, although he still had that annoying groggy feeling that went hand in hand with the subject of yesterday's newspaper headlines.

Kai glanced towards the phone as he pulled his clothes on and painted on his shark fins, he was pleased to see the receiver was still off the hook and that Tyson was non-the wiser. He quickly towel dried his hair, it was still a bit damp and hung limply around his face. He snatched up Dranzer pausing as he remembered the dream from last night. He pulled his blade closer and scrutinized his bit, _nope, still definitely just Dranzer,_ he thought, checking for any sign of Brooklyn's smarmy face. He attached his launcher onto his belt and placed Dranzer safely into his pocket.

"M' ready, lets go!" he called into the living room from the hallway.

"No way man, ROOM SERVICE!" Tyson shouted, competing with the TV.

Kai glared at the living room, "What room service?"

"The room service that's on its way here right now, dude!" Tyson's beaming face bobbed suddenly into view, "I ordered EVERYTHING!"

"Hnn.. How did you call…. Thought we were in a rush?" Kai growled angrily, shoving his hands into his pockets and slouching into the living room, sitting down next to him, wondering how Tyson had managed to order anything in the first place.

Tyson ignored Kai's comment, "For some reason your phone isn't working- I called from the servants phone in the kitchen."

"What?" Kai asked, annoyed, mostly at the fact that he himself hadn't thought of that and secondly that Tyson had.

"Servants phone…. in the kitchen. Dude, what is wrong with you today?" the smaller boy prodded Kai in the forehead between the eyes. Kai quickly knocked Tyson's hand out of the way. Tyson looked shocked that he had even managed to get that close. "Ha!" He laughed, pointing at the taller blader. Kai pulled a face that clearly said _what the heck_. "So what's up?"

"Nothing." Kai dismissed him as the doorbell rang, "see Tyson, normal people use the doorbell."

"Whatever man!" Tyson shouted, smacking Kai over the back of the head with his hat as he rushed past him towards the door. Kai caught up and one-handedly shoved Tyson sideways into the wall and then continued casually walking down the hallway with a smirk etched onto his face.

"Seriously, you can find the servants phone but you can't see a doorbell that's right in front of you?" Kai laughed.

"Yeah well, there wasn't any food involved." Tyson mumbled, rubbing his side.

"Mr. Hiwatari?" the butler said politely as Kai pulled back the door. His face was old and wrinkled but he looked like a relatively jolly man.

"Yea-"

"That's me!" Tyson cut across him in a deep voice, messing up his hair and throwing himself against the wall, folding his arms as he did so. Kai sighed deeply, knowing exactly what was about to happen. "I see you have my banquet of doom!" Tyson began in a mock-Kai voice.

"Ignore my guest, he's got a problem with his brain," Kai said to the confused butler.

"I don't have a problem with my brain!" Tyson snapped.

"You're about to." Kai said quietly. The older man surveyed the two boys with mild amusement.

"Righto Sir's! Where would you like me to put everything?" he asked, pushing a huge silver teacart through the door.

"Sitting roo-" Kai began.

"In the sitting room of evil!" Tyson proclaimed loudly, re-assuming his mock-Kai attitude.

The butler let out a small chuckle, "indeed sir!" he turned the corner, pushing the rattling tray into the room and out of sight. Kai stared incredulously after the old man, was he seriously playing along with Tyson's idiocy? He elbowed Tyson sharply as he walked past; they both stared at each other.

"Unnecessary dude," Tyson whispered so as not to alert the butler.

Kai smirked. "I'm not the one being a total arse."

The butler had began to lay out various silver serving dishes with large domed lids that were elaborately embossed with images of grape vines and cherry trees, much like those which Kai had at home. Soon, the coffee table was filled with food and Kai had to admit, he was hungry.

Tyson had dropped the Kai act as soon as he saw the food. There were a total of twenty dishes and although they didn't look particularly large Kai knew this would be a struggle, even for Tyson, who was giggling and bouncing on the balls of his feet.

"Foooooood! Oh man look at all this fo-od!" he whined happily, jumping over the back of the sofa for the second time that day, alarming the butler, "sorry!" he added as the older man jumped out of the way in surprise.

"That's quite alright sir," clearly butler didn't have rules about not jumping on the furniture. "If you need anything else, don't hesitate to call!" he added in a jolly manner as he exited the room.

"This is ridiculous," Kai said, shaking his head from the opposite sofa. Tyson had already begun unveiling every dish on the table.

"Starters first!" he said joyfully, picking up a bowl of soup and piece of toasted bread. Kai watched in disbelief as Tyson drank the soup straight from the bowl, his soupspoon was abandoned on the table. It was silly that Kai still found Tyson's eating habits shocking, but in all fairness, that's exactly what they were.

Kai lifted the lid of the nearest dish to reveal a juicy looking burger. He paused for a second, trying to figure out why the sight of it made him feel slightly queasy, _oh yeah,_ he remembered- _Kenny Burgers._ Kai slammed the lid straight back down and pushed the plate as far away from him as possible.

The second plate revealed a perfectly cooked steak. The dish next to it housed crispy golden roast potatoes, and the other, a selection of buttered and seasoned vegetables. He had to admit, it did look good and if he didn't eat it now he knew Tyson would get his greedy hands on it sooner rather than later.

Kai cast a fleeting glance at his teammate who was now trying to shove an entire chicken breast into his mouth. He raised an eyebrow; this was his chance. He reached towards the three plates with a large silver-serving spoon and took mountainous helping of each, slowly replacing the lids so as not to alarm the gluttonous pig.

It was extremely delicious, better than the cook at home, poor Arthur, despite being the Hiwatari family cook, he had never been all the ticket. Kai wondered why his Grandfather kept him on. _Ugh,_ he thought- even the thought of food somehow led him back to that man. He bit into a roast potato and glanced up at the TV in the hope of wiping the thought from his mind.

Tyson had managed to get through the majority of the dishes faster than Kai had expected. Kai had also helped himself to a salmon and cream cheese bagel and a salad. After all, it looked healthy and it was the last thing Tyson would go for. He was absolutely stuffed, but there was still desert, Kai's favourite part of every meal. In fact he had already chosen his dessert whilst the cheese board had Tyson distracted.

A few minutes later, Kai was happily halfway through his desert when, "Huh… I ordered ice cream!" Tyson flailed his arms around the table like a dog that had lost sight of its ball.

Kai froze with his mouth half open, a spoon full of the finest Cornish strawberry ice cream mere centimeters away. _Oops,_ he thought. He had three options, run away, get rid of the evidence or feign innocently not knowing his teammate had wanted it in the first place. Tyson's eyes met his, _crap._ Kai shoveled the remaining two scoops of ice cream into his mouth, he tried to smirk but his cheeks were too full. His teeth began to feel extremely numb and the brain freeze started to kick in. He shut his eyes in pain, why did he always do stupid things around Tyson?

An intense silence ensued over the two boys; Kai kept his eyes closed trying to swallow. He heard the distinct noise of silverware crashing to the floor and large feet stamping on what sounded like the coffee table, then, Tyson landed on top of him, grabbing the ice cream bowl and trying to wrestle it out of his hands.

Kai's eyes snapped open; he kneed Tyson in the stomach, attempting to push him off, "GET-OFF!"

"YOU STOLE MY ICECREAM." Tyson scrambled to get a better grip of the bowl.

"ITS NOT YOUR ICECREAM!"

"STRAWBERRY IS MY FAVOURITE!" Tyson complained.

"FUCK OFF IS IT!" Kai knew for a fact Tyson's favourite ice cream was triple chocolate chip.

He kicked out and managed to hurl Tyson over the back of the sofa with his feet, letting go of the empty dish. Tyson landed on the floor with a crash and stared at the bowl in his hands, only now did he realize it was empty.

"Its all gone!" he shouted disappointedly.

"Well done, genius." Kai growled, returning to an upright position. Tyson was already sulking back to his seat.

"Can't believe you stole my ice cream." He muttered, picking up a newspaper from the teacart and grabbing a piece of carrot cake as he went.

"My room, my food." Kai smirked, folding his arms, but Tyson wasn't paying attention.

"Woaahhh..." Tyson groaned, staring at the front of the newspaper. Kai's alarm bells started to ring, "dude… is this why you overslept?"

"No." Kai replied sharply.

"You have seen this, right?" Tyson squinted at him, waving the paper around. Kai turned away. Of course he had seen it, he had spent the entire night having each paper delivered to his room as soon as it was published so that he could read them before anyone else. In fact, that was probably the reason why he overslept.

"Yes, I know." He confirmed bluntly.

"AND YOU DIDN'T TELL ME?" Tyson asked in a pleading voice, settling himself on the sofa opposite.

"Don't you think that if I had wanted to tell you, I would have?" he said, glaring at his teammate as if daring him to ask again.

"Don't you think I ought to know?" Tyson demanded.

"Who are you, my Mom?" Kai responded sarcastically, standing up, reaching over the table and snatching the paper out of Tyson's hand.

Tyson ignored his comment, "How do you feel?" he was staring at him with those puppy dog eyes. Kai ignored them as he threw the paper down onto the floor. He didn't want to look at it. "Seriously Kai, are you ok?" Tyson probed again, the level of concern in his voice made Kai want to punch him. The atmosphere in the room had been relatively happy and carefree, and Tyson just had to ruin it, didn't he?

"Didn't realize I was in a therapy session."

"You bet, I'm Dr. Tyson Granger at your service!" Tyson's fist punched the air triumphantly; "yea-ah!" the carrot cake which was still in Tyson's hand appeared to have been completely forgotten.

"In what universe could you become a Doctor?" he drawled.

"Hey, I could become a doctor, I know things!" Kai doubted that Tyson knew anything apart from how to blade and the McDonalds menu.

"You sure about that?" Kai smirked.

"Whatever man I got a B+ in my finals this year so you can suck a toe!" replied the younger blader angrily. Kai frowned at Tyson's childish remark. "Seriously Kai, uhh, why don't you just tell me about it?"

Kai turned away silently. "Oh come on man! Don't act like that with me!"

"Fine." Kai turned back to face him, resting against the sofas arm and popping his legs onto the seats, as if he were lying on a therapist's chaise lounge. Tyson was looking at him confused, or maybe that was just his normal face.

"I feel… I feel…." Kai began quietly, trying his best to pull an expression that portrayed a pained young man, trying to compile his scattered thoughts. He stared deliberately into Tysons eyes, and then down at the floor, sighing slightly. Tyson was gazing at him wide-eyed and Kai could tell that he was overjoyed that he, Kai Hiwatari, the closed off sourpuss, was finally about to open up to him. He grabbed the tissue box dramatically from the coffee table, cradling it in his arms.

"You see.. uh, well, I just.. I don't know where to begin," Tyson was hanging on his every word.

"Come on dude, its ok, you can tell me!" Tyson said gently.

"Ok Tyson, I think I can do this!" He nodded, sniffing slightly, "but only because you're here." Tyson's face looked as if his heart had swelled a thousand times its normal size.

"Well, I guess…. This morning," _one more pause for dramatic effect,_ "a gluttonous pig barged into my hotel room and ordered everything off the room service menu and now he wont fuck off!" Kai grinned; this would be the highlight of his day.

Tysons expression quickly switched to rage, "YOU'RE SUCH A DICK!" he grabbed the TV remote and threw it swiftly towards Kai, who, having expected an outburst, plucked the remote straight from the air, shaking with mirth.

"You're so simple!" He grinned whilst Tyson seethed with anger across the coffee table.

"Am not! I was only trying to help!" he huffed.

"Well I'd rather you didn't." Kai knew he could deal with this alone; he didn't need anyone's help.

Tyson huffed, "Fine." Kai was relieved to find he sounded defeated, "so, when did you find out?" Kai sighed, perhaps not.

He mustered the most bored voice he could achieve, "Monday."

"Andddd?" Tyson probed.

"Look Tyson," he stood up forcefully, "I've not even had that much time to think about it and I sure as hell I don't wanna talk about it, but if you wanna know what happened- just ask Mr Dickinson, or even- read this article!" he picked up the paper and thrust it into Tysons chest. "That is if you can even read."

"I can read! But fine!" Tyson snapped, snatching the paper up, "lets go!"

"Go where?" Kai asked, confused.

"To train!" Tyson jumped, full of energy, Dragoon blade in one hand, paper in the other.

Kai was shocked he was giving up so easily, had his little speech actually worked? "Wha... wait you can read AND walk at the same time?" Kai mocked, quickly regaining himself, he didn't want Tyson to think he was still open for questioning.

"Ha, ha, ha, more comments about my lack of intelligence, hilarious, so original." Tyson replied, smacking Kai over the back of the head with the rolled up newspaper, "I'll get it out of you eventually."

Kai rolled his eyes and shoved his hands into his pockets. They left the sitting room and bickered all the way down the hall. Kai felt guilty for leaving the room in such a mess, plates and silverware strewn across the room in absolute carnage, but he supposed that was what maids were for and to be fair, it was all Tysons fault.

Pls do leave a review, I love reading them, they spur me on :3! Thanks to Cutetyhil, Nikki and BobzDillans for your reviews!


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